Persistent Questions

Today is my birthday—and I was told that you might have a February birthday, too. How do you handle questions about your birthday? I am a sick and tired of being asked how old I am—it is none of anyone else’s business. but some questioners do not seem to know that and keep bugging me.

 Now that I am done laughing, yes, today is the anniversary of my birth day and yes, it is no one else’s business. A person’s age is just a number and it is your right to UNLIST that number (except when you must disclose it legally). I have had people follow me around a campus when I was lecturing at a weekend conference or retreat-- badgering me literally to know when I was born. "On February the 1^st of a very cold year,” I always reply. When they push for a year (by that I mean they continue to ask for a specific birth year—not that they have continually asked me that question over the course of an entire year, although sometimes it feels like that!)—I may reply, “Old enough to know that I am under no obligation to answer that question.” If they are so socially inept as to continue to push for a specific answer, I may reply, “I am aiming to become a supercentenarian, and I will announce it when that happens.”