Let me ask a question of those of you of a certain age: Did you ever look around at a group of your peers and wondered to yourself if you look as old as they do?

I ask that because I heard of an older gentleman who was sitting in the reception room of a dentist’s office. It was his first visit to see this dentist. While waiting for his appointment, he noticed a certificate hanging on a wall which bore the dentist’s full name. Suddenly, he remembered that a slender, nice looking young woman with that name had been in his high school class some 50 years ago.

Upon seeing the dentist, however, he quickly discarded any such thought. This gray‑haired lady with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been his classmate.

After she had examined his teeth, he mentioned a certain school and …