A small aged brass hourglass with almost no sand left in the top, casting a long soft shadow on a dark blue background.

Original artwork, not a still

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Old age is fifteen years older than I am.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Old age is always placed safely ahead of the speaker’s current position. Because the distance moves with him, the definition protects him from ever quite arriving there. The joke turns a supposedly fixed stage of life into a convenient adjustment of personal perspective.

Context reviewed

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