Preface To Ages: Another Confusing Theme Needs To Be Elucidated

Note to self: stop using the word "elucidate."

This week's Self Help Radio theme, which is "ages," might best have been (if I had been thinking about it) capitalized, as "Ages," which would perhaps have separated it from the many other definitions of the word. The meaning of "ages" (or "Ages") that Self Help Radio will be exploring this week is these, courtesy of the Free Dictionary:

1. A period in the history of humankind marked by a distinctive characteristic or achievement: the Stone Age; the computer age.

2. A period in the history of the earth, usually shorter than an epoch: the Ice Age.

3. A period of time marked by the presence or influence of a dominant figure: the Elizabethan Age.

Some Ages are have a general agreement in terms of time, usually because of an event, such as "the Atomic Age," so-called because it began with the development & explosion of the atom bomb. Some are more arbitrary, like calling a period of time "a golden age" (as some in this country do) when, perhaps, at the same time many of the people around were victims of oppression. They probably will not call that time for them a "golden age."

Of course, like all measurements of time, "Ages" are human-designated. But then so is Self Help Radio. The exploration of "Ages" on the show this week may indeed begin the Age Of Self Help Radio.

Though I doubt it.