Question of the Day 61

How old were you when you began actively comparing your age to other people's?

By that, I mean looking at someone famous and thinking that person is younger than me? Or looking at someone famous-and-old and thinking that person isn't that much older than me.

I never did that much before, but since I turned 40, I've caught myself more and more making those comparisons. I read in an article the other day that Portia de Rossi is 36, and I almost choked on my oatmeal...

... and you'll say that maybe part of the problem is that I'm eating oatmeal, but my oatmeal isn't "Old Man Oatmeal." I mix in peanut butter and cereal and maple syrup, so that the oatmeal (much like lettuce in a salad) is merely a conveyance for the stuff I really want to eat...

... because I couldn't believe that Portia de Rossi was younger than me. But then, I heard an interview with Jesse Ventura yesterday (remember him?) and he said he's 58, and all I thought was: Boy, Jesse Ventura isn't really that much older than me.

And that depressed me, for some reason. Then I tried to cheer myself up by thinking but, then again, he is 18 years older. It didn't work, though, because I realized that I'd mentally lumped Everyone 40 and older into one category, which meant that probably everyone was doing that, so that no matter what I thought, the entire world would be putting me and Jesse Ventura into the same "Old" category.