How Old Would You Be if You Didn't Know How Old You Were?

One of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time, Leroy “Satchel” Paige, was confined by American racism to the “Negro League” for 19 years. He got his first crack at major league baseball playing for the Cleveland Indians in 1948, when he was 42 years old.

Along with his talent and personality, his advanced age blew people away. “How do you do it?” reporters asked. One of his great quips was, “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” Ahhh. Balm for the American soul, confirmation for one of our favorite ideas: You’re as young as you feel (so if you feel—ugh—“old,” that’s on you).

Other times, Paige would reply to this question with a riddle, of sorts: “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?” My first response to this question was ebullience. Of course! I can choose my age! And then I thought about it a little more and realized that the riddle itself embodies ageism – or at least, my response to it does.

Maybe Paige assumed that people would automatically think they were 10, 20, 30 years older than their actual years. But I doubt it. The liberation promised by the question—How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?—is that we get to choose to be younger—much younger—than we actually are. What a relief! Right?

Not so fast. (Though Paige’s high-precision fastball was legendary.) Satchel Paige was beloved and honored for many good reasons. And also for confirming our cherished belief that we can escape old age through the power of our minds. Nah. We can feel great while being older. But there’s only one way to evade old age, and most people want nothing to do with it.