Even those of us who laugh that age is just a number and dismiss calendars as man-made, feel a bittersweet quietness this time of the year.u00a0Spending time with old friends, we sheepishly talk of how the sharp edges of our sight and hearing are becoming every so slightly blunt. We laugh at how we thought we’d never get old. We are relieved to be older -- allowed now to be bossy as we like, dress up or down un-self-consciously. But anxious, because the time in hand is less than the wishes in our hearts.