I try to remember that age is not an indicator of brilliance, or success, or of anything else. I am the age that I am simply because I have survived this long. I have been free from major illness. I have escaped dangerous accidents. I am here and doing the things I am not because of some kind of special ability or intellectual superiority. I am here at least partly because of luck.

Inc. Magazine recently ran an article about 40 people who became millionaires before they were 20. There is a particular type of brilliance that is possessed by young people that is awe-inspiring. These young people not only had brilliant ideas - they also worked really hard to turn ideas into reality.

Of course there are some things that people do to become rich that I have been unwilling to do. I could never have sacrificed my time with my marriage or my family in exchange for more profit. I’m sure that these young entrepreneurs have skills and abilities that I lack, but they also made some choices that are different from the choices I have made.

Nonetheless, it is clear that there is incredible brilliance among young people. Having said that, there are some things that one gains through age and experience. I am made aware of this every time I get a hair cut.

The place where I get my hair cut employs a lot of people, mostly women, in their twenties. They look like they are much younger to me, but that is just a particular kind of amblyopia that affects old men. We look at young people in a kind of way that puts them all into the same category. These days almost everyone under the age of 30 seems like a teenager to me. The young women who work in the place where I get my hair cut are all successful in their own way. They have finished their education and they know about cutting hair and how to manage their own financial resources. They have managed sometimes complex lives outside of their work environment. They are capable and most of them are well suited to their vocation.

They do sport some pretty interesting hair styles and many of them have quite a bit of body art including piercings and tattoos that, in addition to age, would distinguish them from someone like me in a crowd. I’ve never sported hair of any color other than the way it grows. The different colors my hair has had over the years have all been natural. I have no objection to others coloring their hair, but I’m never sure whether or not it is appropriate to stare when hair is the color of a blue raspberry popsicle or a “my little pony” toy. Is it rude to ask whether or not it glows in the dark? I mean, didn’t the person color their hair that way in order to be noticed? Since I don’t know the answers to these and other questions, I generally don’t make the hair of my stylist the topic of our conversation.

Which brings up another topic. Apparently the place where I go doesn’t have barbers any more. They are all stylists. That’s fine with me, but I don’t expect to emerge from a haircut with any more style than I had when I entered the shop. They might create great art with someone who has a great head of hair, but in my case, we need to be satisfied with making me just a little bit more socially acceptable.

One question that I always get when I get my hair cut is, “Are you sure you want your beard trimmed that short?” I think they are surprised at how fast my beard grows. I know I am. It didn’t grow that fast when I was in my 20’s and trying to look like I was a bit older. These days I add inches in a few weeks. Since I know it will grow back out, there seems to be little risk in cutting it too short.

After the hair is trimmed - which points out another mystery of the art - we get onto other questions. Before that, back to the mystery: Why does it take longer to cut my hair now that I have so little of it? There was a time when I sported a rather full head of hair. These days the bald spot in the center of my head is inching toward the receding hairline. I’m thinking that the poor stylist has to cut my hairs one at a time up there. There seems to be a lot more fussing and snipping than was the case when I had more hair.

But I digress. After my hair is cut and my beard is trimmed, you’d think I’d be done, but there are still more questions. “Would you like me to trim your eyebrows while we are at it?” is a question that 30-year-olds have never heard. I have to say, “Yes” every time I get my hair cut. I don’t know why my eyebrows have decided to grow at lightning speed these days. I just know that if someone doesn’t trim them it will look like I’m providing nesting ground for a couple of wooly caterpillars on my forehead. And it is really hard for me to trim my own eyebrows. Scissors and mirrors and I don’t get along well at all.

The same goes for trimming the hair in my ears. I’m not sure that hair even grew in my ears when I was younger. At least I never had to get it trimmed. Now if I go too many days without getting my ears trimmed I start to look like a character in a fantasy fiction movie. And I’m not talking about the cute characters, either.

So I tip a lot more for a haircut than would have occurred to me when I was younger. It seems if the stylist has to ask all of these embarrassing questions she deserves a bit extra for her efforts. And perhaps her younger clients can’t afford to tip as much.

Then again, her younger clients might all be millionaires who have a whole lot more money than I.

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