Friday, 5 September 2025

Emergency Questions #11: Heavenly Age

Blink 182 - What's My Age Again?

Summer's over and the time is right to bring back some of the ongoing series I abandoned just prior to my holiday from teaching (aka the Exhaustion Weeks). It's a cliché that I go back to work for a rest, but... 

Kevin Rowland - Age Can't Wither You

As usual, I'm stealing another query from Richard Herring's book EMERGENCY QUESTIONS and trying to answer it with added songs. Here's today's question...

What age would you like to be when you get to heaven, presuming there is a heaven and you get to choose what age you'll be when you're up there?

Ernest Tubb - It's The Age That Makes The Difference

Putting aside whether or not we believe in any kind of afterlife, this is a thought-provoking question. If we're lucky enough to live to an old age, we wouldn't want to be stuck at that age, for eternity, with all the frailties, disabilities and marble loss that might come with it. We'd want to be young and strong and ready to take best advantage of our nirvana...

New Order - Age Of Consent

Would we want then to spend immortality reliving the "best years of our lives"? Oh, to be 16 again...  

Hello Saferide - X Telling Me About The Loss Of Something Dear, At Age 16

No thank you very much. I wouldn't mind going back and reliving a good day of my adolescence, safe in the knowledge that I could return to where I am right now before the bad days kick in. Because I did have a good many bad days as a teenager, days of self-doubt, embarrassment, humiliation days and crushing loneliness. 

Joe Jackson - Awkward Age

Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag

What about my twenties then? When I was a bit more grown up? And even more messed up...

Pet Shop Boys - Twenty Something

Taylor Swift - 22

Probably not. 

In my thirties, maybe then I finally got a handle on this thing called life... though I still didn't feel like a proper grown-up. (Still don't.) 

Aimee Man - 31 Today

In answer to Rich's question then, I'd probably choose to be mid-30s. Some time just before I fell down the stairs and broke my arm, also causing a slipped disc in my back which still bothers me today. Some time before the aches and pains set in... 

Willie Nelson - Don't Be Ashamed Of Your Age

Department S - Age Concern


I realise I'm a bit unusual though. Maybe you would choose to be 16 forever... or 21... or even 7?

What age would you pick to live out the hereafter?


8 comments:

  1. I think I'm with you on the mid-thirties.

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  2. My father died at 45 of heart disease/heart attack. I’m 55 now and sort of feel like I have already lived far longer than my expected expiration date. I live each day feeling lucky that I have made it this far. If I’m honest with myself, my happiest days were probably during college, but I didn’t have two pennies to rub together. Security and happiness didn’t really arrive until around age 32. I’ll go with that. - Brian

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    1. That's a great attitude to life, Brian.

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  3. Hmm, interesting. Weirdly perhaps, I think it'd be the mid-50s for me - when I started to feel that age and experience were finally paying off with a little bit of wisdom, if you can call it that! - and relaxation about being who you are. But before the energy starts to lapse too and long enough before the start of more physical decline. A bit of a sweet spot.

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    1. Why do I feel like I'm falling apart at 53 then?

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  4. Childhood, the Student Years, Late 20s, Early 40s, Now! I'm always at my happiest when there are no work/money pressures and there is enough time to do all the things you love. Having been ill a couple of summers ago I've been on a bit of a roll since recovering, living life to the full and not worrying about all the minutiae of life (although could be a lot to do with the medication I'm still on).

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    Replies
    1. Good for you, Alyson. Hopefully there are good meds in heaven.

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    2. I didn't think that through did I!?

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