Is age just a number?

 

Is age just a number?  Age actually is a number. but a number with some meaning associated with it. We are not immortal after all.  We are born as babies, then grow up, become adults, often have children of our own, become old, and eventually die. Then that's it, the final end. But before going any further, let's discuss some other matters first.

In Latin American, Africa, and much of Asia, cars, trucks, buses, and other motor vehicles are not

left parked outside overnight. If left out there, they might well be gone in the 

morning, or else have their tires, wheels, and even motors missing,  Motor vehicles instead

 are locked inside covered garages or fenced areas with armed guards always on duty there overnight. 

 So visitors from other places are often amazed to see our own vehicles here being left outside unattended overnight, on both city and small-town streets. Vehicles are not even manufactured in most developing countries nor would local buyers even trust them if they actually were. So they all are imported, with heavy duties, and must be protected at all times. 

 Foreign visitors now coming here may also be surprised to see our household doors left unlocked during the day or even overnight in both towns and rural areas like where we are living now. Even back in DC, I always left my front door on Capitol Hill unlocked during the day to avoid having to go downstairs from my 3rd-floor office to open the door.  When the doorbell rang, I just looked out my 3rd-floor window to see who was there. Inside the house, what was there to steal anyway? Everyone has the same things. We don't live among pockets of poverty, although in some areas where poverty may exist (a relative term, not the same in every country), front doors might actually be locked.  But out here in rural West Virginia where my son and I are living now, we don't even have any door locks at all. However, we do have a dog that would bark at any unfamiliar intruder. 

Now, about husbands killing their wives, often blaming a mysterious nighttime intruder without any evidence, is that really credible at all?  It would be exceedingly rare in this country to have an intruder enter a private home at night and kill only the female occupant without attacking her husband first, since he would be likely to defend her. Those guys claiming that intruders have killed their wives usually have no scratches or cuts. So what do you think actually happened?  Was there really any intruder at all? 

Do wives ever kill their husbands? Not often, but when they actually do, they cite evidence that their husbands have been regularly abusing them. 

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Some more observations: 

On average, men all over the world are taller, heavier, and with bigger bones and stronger muscles than most women.  Yet women, despite being baby producers and, in most societies, being assigned lesser roles than men, with smaller incomes and less important jobs, still actually live much longer on average, than do most men.  As has been mentioned before, this is partly due to women having longer telomeres and 2 X chromosomes, instead of just one, as men do. Estrogen in women is also protective.

AI Overview

So that's why the world's oldest people have always been women. But could a man ever becomes the world's old person? It's possible to imagine, but has never actually happened. 

AI Overview

The world's oldest verified living man is João Marinho Neto of Brazil, who is 113 years old.

The world's oldest verified living woman and the oldest living person is 

Ethel Caterham 

of the United Kingdom, who is 117 years old.

The oldest verified person ever is Jeanne Calment of France, who lived for 122 years and 164 days according to Guinness World Records. 

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I myself am not aiming to be beat any of these records, because who wants to still be alive when our loved ones, even our own offspring, are likely to have died?  My dad died at age 81, my mother at 92. I certainly would not want to live past 100--at least that's my position right now at age 88, so in just 12 more years.  If I should actually reach age 100, then ask me again at that point.