"Age is just a number." Yes, but...

This will not be a well-researched blog about age, aging, ageism, age discrimination, or anything else having to do with age. It is really only about my personal feelings or irritation when I read that phrase, "age is just a number."

While it is true that age is just a number, so is 3. Or 130. Or 16. I would not want a 3-year old to drive. Maybe not even a 130-year old. An 80-year old has the wisdom of a lifetime that a 16-year old lacks. So yes, age is a number, but it can be a very important number.

To me, when used, that phrase sounds more like an excuse and a diversion than an explanation. You read people interested in dating say it. You hear politicians - usually much older or much younger than "normal" - say it. In fact, I cannot recall any instance where using the phrase changed my mind or convinced me in any way, shape, or form.

So when I hear a current presidential candidate say "age is just a number" - looking at you, Joe - all it really confirms is that the person saying it - again, looking at you, Joe - is really trying to get a reader or listener to look beyond something that is really quite relevant to the position, that of the President of the United States. It is probably the most difficult job in the world and mental acuity, sharpness, coherence, and general togetherness are critical to success.

Especially considering the chaotic, hyper-partisan, deeply divided country a candidate wants to lead.

Do not use "age is just a number." Ever. In any context, especially when running for president. My life will be much less stressful and I think others' will, too.

So you want to be a writer? (ahem....)

So how do you cultivate the focus and discipline to finish a task? By continually doing the dull stuff. You do it until you’re used to it and getting through is a habit. For example, if you want to be a writer, you write, as Rebecca Solnit explains on LitHub:

Write. There is no substitute…But start small: write a good sentence, then a good paragraph, and don’t be dreaming about writing the great American novel or what you’ll wear at the awards ceremony because that’s not what writing’s about or how you get there from here. The road is made entirely out of words. Write a lot…it’s effort and practice. Write bad stuff because the road to good writing is made out of words and not all of them are well-arranged words.

Make your goal to simply write, and eventually you’ll get to the next boring step—edits.

The work may always be a bit painful, as acclaimed writers reveal. 

“More often than not if I’ve done nine pages I may be able to save two and a half or three,” poet and writer Maya Angelou tells the Paris Review. “That’s the cruelest time you know.”