Ages

Some of the fossils in Max’s collection went back to the Mesozoic Era, the Age of Reptiles. Max thought, “I can relate.” Max also thought, “Age is relative.” And he thought, “I really can’t relate.” Aging is difficult to understand. It’s like a good book that you’ve always owned but you’ve never opened. If you lived alone and had no mirrors in your place, it would take a long time, after adulthood, to see that your age made any difference. It turns out it makes a difference, but it’s like watching a cactus grow. Maybe you get a little more prickly, a little more desiccated. Hard to say anything happens. You gradually get used to each phase, so it seems that nothing changes. In comparison to the fossil of a fish from the Paleozoic Era, human beings don’t age at all. They die before they get old. It seemed to Max that he started to age before he had a chance to get old.