I find myself surrounded by younger folks, at work and in this social/support group.  Most are younger than my youngest sibling (she's 39); many are younger than my two daughters (30 and 29).  I am constantly reminded, by arthritis mostly, that I am not as young as once I was, and yet, if I stay away from mirrors and other reflective surfaces, there are long stretches of time in which I forget that I am on the crumbling edge of decrepitude.  There are long stretches of time in which my persistent mental self image insists that I am young, and strong and good looking.  What a shock it is to catch my reflection in a glass door as I hold it for an attractive young stranger...   Of course there are compensations to growing older; one does tend to gain wisdom from experience, if one pays attention.  And if one has been very fortunate, as I have been, to grow old in tandem with another person, life's later years can be very sweet.   Still, what I want to communicate here is this: That getting older doesn't change who you are, or what you want and feel and need.   It doesn't change your self-perception in any fundamental way, but only changes the way other (younger) people see you.  Sometimes this is amusing, sometimes tragic.  Just another inconvenient fact of life, really.  But wouldn't it be kind to remember that the wrinkled old woman was once a little girl in pigtails, was once the apple of her lover's eye; that the crooked little man was once taller and straighter, the handsomest man his wife had ever seen?    And to all my young friends: don't be reluctant to be photographed; you will be surprised at how beautiful you look in those photos when you view them many years from now.