On age; and quotes

Age is one of my favourite subjects, mostly age difference between partners in a relationship. As it has been under conversation in one forum I frequent I thought I could blog about a bit.

One of my characteristics has always been my obvious blindness for age. I realise differences between age X and age Y, but I fail to see those years which are in between them.
And that's why people seem to usually consider me a bit... well, if not odd at least naïve.
I think one of the reasons I dislike categorizing people by age is that I've heard few times in my life words ...but you're so young.
Or then I just have always been against all sort of discrimination by traits you can't affect yourself - age being one of them.

Age seems to play important role in relationships, some people wouldn't date someone noticeably older than they are and some of us, like me, don't see why age should matter.
Though I admit that lately it has become more important, but only for one reason: family. As I want to have kids, and I want to give them whole package (two parents and all that) I need to focus on age more than I'd like to.
I admit that other reason for it is that I think how young/old I'll be when counterpart is in one's 70s/80s. It's very likely that I'll be a widow in case I remarry, because I don't do young men (Dan was the youngest ever and even he was older than I am. Only six months, but anyway.), but you never know.

I can say that I've tendency to get involved (for example Wolfie is 12 years older than I'm (and we had some conversations over the issue), but he's not even close the biggest age difference I've experienced...) with so called 'older men', I don't know why. Maybe it's being air-headed little blonde or, as I've heard, me being matured over my years.
There's also practical fact, and that is why women are usually younger in heterosexual relationships. And that reason is status.
Older men have achieved things in their life, they already have the status younger males usually lack. They have bigger probability to be in financially good standings, which is important factor when it comes to survival of offspring.
And younger women have more years of fertility ahead of them, which means more children... which means that both counterparts can fulfill their task on Earth (spreading their genes and secure offspring's possibilities to survive to fertile age) more effectively.

Cruel, isn't it?

Anyway, what makes some of us blind to age and why someone are so aware of it?

Quotes

"The heart, like the grape,is prone to delivering its harvest in the same moment it appears to be crushed."
Roger Houseden

" Life is like a puzzle: amid these oddly shaped pieces there are two that fit each other. They don't fit because they're perfect, they just fit because they're perfect for each other. Apart, they are two pieces without definition; together they complement each other and take on meaning."
T. D. Jakes

"We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth."
Virginia Satir, family therapist