With his admonition in mind, I recently spoke with Mr. Rubenstein, now 69, and asked him if he considers himself old. Coincidentally, just a few days earlier, a 68-year-old poet I know, in between surgeries to help her mend after a fall, told me point blank, “I am an old lady now.”What makes one sexagenarian identify as old when another doesn’t? Dinner conversations are now hyper-focused on how to stay young or at least delay old. Certainly the definition of “old” is changing, as life spans have grown longer. “Someone who is 60 years old today is middle-aged,” said Sergei Scherbov, the lead researcher of a multiyear study on aging.

Source: New York Times December 13, 2018 10:02 UTC