Everybody's talkin' 'bout bagism!

"All we are saying.... is give peace a chance!" Actually, everybody's not talking about bagism (whatever that was, John Lennon!), everybody's not talking about anything. Everybody's all about agism, it seems like. I can't get over how many people point out how "old" I am... unless, of course, I'm talking to people older than me. Then I notice that they're in the same boat--that I'm the one making THEM feel older. Except with me, it's not a conscious thing. (At least, I don't TRY to do it consciously... maybe once in a great while I'll make a quick remark or quip... but mostly, I try to be more considerate about that.) But I work with, or sometimes volunteer with, younger people--as in teenagers and young adults. It's frustrating to me how big of an issue my age is. It's not like I'm going out socializing with this younger crowd. I just happen to spend a little bit of time with them, at work or during these volunteer events. My question is: WHY is it such a big deal all of a sudden? When I was a teenager or young adult, if I was around older people, I don't think I made such an issue out of it. Is it possible that I did, and I was just so clueless about what I was doing? Can I be so callous? Perhaps I'm STILL doing it, to people that are older than me now... and I'm STILL not aware of it. Geez, I hope I can be a little more thoughtful than that! Maybe I shouldn't have even written this--my apologies to anyone older than me! (And to those of you who are younger than me: take a lesson--we don't like having it pointed out that we're older!)