Age is just a number

smack…smack…POP!

Who was chomping gum and blowing bubbles at the Panera Bread counter? Not the child I expected, but a full-grown, clean shaven man in his mid 30s. He seemed to be enjoying himself so much, I had to ask,

“Do you think we ever reach an age where we are too old to chew bubblegum?”

“No. Never.”

“Why is that? Does the act of chewing gum and blowing bubbles make you feel young again?”

“ It doesn’t make me feel young. I am actually stepping into being a nine-year-old kid again when I chew gum.”

He blew another bubble, then ordered his very adult-like Café Americano to make up for his juxtaposing self image.

This brief encounter got me to thinking about how age, in certain circumstances, is just a number. How old we think we are inside our heads, often doesn't match up with what our bodies look like outside. Evidence of this is seen all throughout society as plastic surgeons resculpt and reshape bodies to help people look they way they feel inside. Yet, for others, like the man blowing bubbles in the coffeeshop, maybe the fix really is as simple as chewing a stick of gum. And that a little piece of candy was all the magic we needed to travel through time.