What age?

"Gray is the new blond," says the wonderful blog Advanced Style which I have come across every now and then and which I'm going to add to my sidebar soon. [Doing these computer caretaking things needs mental working up to -- I think it's like learning to ride a horse, it takes nerve to actually begin when one gets ove a certain age.] The woman in the picture for that particular post has waist length gray hair. But, hey, I'm just as gray so there I am.

Lately I've realized anew, as I realize every now and then, that I no longer can judge age of anyone over, say 11 or 12. Styles change, and the usual messages about hairdos and clothing on people are highly confusing. I was speaking to a woman a few days ago who looks very young to me, perhaps early 40s, as we talked she revealed that she is 57. I was flummoxed. Perhaps one of the best lessons is to simply forget about age to a very large extent and just interact with everyone as individuals. Sounds so totally obvious. But very few people ever shed the habit of categorizing people by their apparent age, even if, like me, they are often wrong about their age guesses. For many gray hair is an indicator but that's iffy too. I was mostly gray at 45, so are many other people. And then there are those who don't go gray -- naturally or artificially.

Anyway, I recommend Advanced Style because the blogger takes fantastic picture of fantastic people on the streets of New York. Prejudiced as I am, I think there's no city with street life like New York -- I miss it.