Perspective

When I am working on my quilts, I usually have either music or television in the background. Today I was watching American Experience while quilting the small gift quilt. This episode was about Walt Disney. Of course being nearly 67 years old I grew up with Walt Disney from seeing Disney films to watching the Sunday television show. My mother wouldn't let us watch Mickey Mouse Club but we were very familiar with most of the other products of the vast Disney empire. We even visited Disneyland in 1957.

Still I was surprised to find out that Walt Disney was younger than I am now when he died. I do remember when he died and I remember thinking that he was old anyway. Then watching the television show he even looked old, at least older than I think I look. Part of the reaction is simply perspective. When I was 15 he did look old. But part of that is a different sort of perspective. I think people even thought they were very old at 65 back then whereas now most of us have pushed the "old" label far in to the eighth or ninth decade of life.