Vintage, veteran, venerable... and maturing?
Age is an issue of mind over matter, and if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!
Published: 03:07 PM,Jul 03,2021 | EDITED : 10:07 AM,Jul 04,2021
It has been said that the great thing about getting old, is that you do not lose all the other ages you have been, the trials and tribulations of those ages, the experiences and experience shared, and the understanding of your fellow man.
So how come as we, the classic generation, appear to merge seamlessly from our forties to our fifties, our sixties, and beyond, the younger generation, and many of those in privileged positions who have the cheek to ignore their own age, define us? How dare they belittle our contributions to society simply because we are getting older? How dare they deny us the respect of our effectiveness as the measure of our value, instead of our age?
It is said that “Men are like a fine wine and get better with age,” but no matter how vigorous, industrious, reliable, passionate and enthusiastic we are, someone always decides that upon attaining an arbitrary age, we must be consigned to the scrap heap, rejecting the wise counsel of the eminent Mark Twain, that doyen of humorist literature, who said, “Age is an issue of mind over matter, and if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!”
We, the venerable generation, want more and newer experiences. We of an age, have an unquenchable thirst for new ways to look at those things of maturity and permanence, and have an unending desire to give those that come after us, more. We also understand the priority of quality over quantity, and that happiness lies not in wealth, but in the calmness and serenity of... well, just knowing stuff!
A case can be made for the mature among us in a hundred ways, not least that they are old enough to know better than to do foolish things. Young enough not to care too much about inconsequential things, or those they can never change. While at the same time we are knowledgeable and experienced enough to do most things right!
Youth may well in fact, be the gift of nature, but age is a work of art, and those who would throw us on the scrapheap are making arbitrary decisions based on their own prejudices, not facts, and not research. Cut the head from a beast, and it will surely die, but removing the wise heads and wisdom from an institution, will also cause it to wither and die. We in our golden years do not look at maturity in the way that some of the more insecure among you do. We are no threat to you.
I remember wondering if I would ever reach my parents’ age. Then, at school I recall a debate on the topic of “What should we do with people when they turn fifty?” What a self-obsessed generation we were, and seemingly, you are now. Yet, here we are, many of us the ‘wrong’ side of sixty, yet far from feeling redundant. It’s true, I know I am not as energetic, or as athletic as I was in my youth, but like many of my ilk, neither decrepit or enfeebled, but intellectually active, and certainly, not ready for the scrapheap!
It is not us who are worried about us getting old, but you, and it consumes you. But why not put aside those prejudices... You need us so much more than you think, and you can learn from us an understanding that, as attributed to David Bowie, “Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you were always destined to be.” So don’t lock us up, shut us down, or pack us in cotton wool.
Instead... let us be who, what, and whatever it is our destiny to be... seasoned... cultivated... prime... cultured... sophisticated... mellow... discerning... insightful... perceptive... erudite... omniscient... sagacious... choice... and... Oh yes... just a wee bit feisty when we need to be.
So how come as we, the classic generation, appear to merge seamlessly from our forties to our fifties, our sixties, and beyond, the younger generation, and many of those in privileged positions who have the cheek to ignore their own age, define us? How dare they belittle our contributions to society simply because we are getting older? How dare they deny us the respect of our effectiveness as the measure of our value, instead of our age?
It is said that “Men are like a fine wine and get better with age,” but no matter how vigorous, industrious, reliable, passionate and enthusiastic we are, someone always decides that upon attaining an arbitrary age, we must be consigned to the scrap heap, rejecting the wise counsel of the eminent Mark Twain, that doyen of humorist literature, who said, “Age is an issue of mind over matter, and if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter!”
We, the venerable generation, want more and newer experiences. We of an age, have an unquenchable thirst for new ways to look at those things of maturity and permanence, and have an unending desire to give those that come after us, more. We also understand the priority of quality over quantity, and that happiness lies not in wealth, but in the calmness and serenity of... well, just knowing stuff!
A case can be made for the mature among us in a hundred ways, not least that they are old enough to know better than to do foolish things. Young enough not to care too much about inconsequential things, or those they can never change. While at the same time we are knowledgeable and experienced enough to do most things right!
Youth may well in fact, be the gift of nature, but age is a work of art, and those who would throw us on the scrapheap are making arbitrary decisions based on their own prejudices, not facts, and not research. Cut the head from a beast, and it will surely die, but removing the wise heads and wisdom from an institution, will also cause it to wither and die. We in our golden years do not look at maturity in the way that some of the more insecure among you do. We are no threat to you.
I remember wondering if I would ever reach my parents’ age. Then, at school I recall a debate on the topic of “What should we do with people when they turn fifty?” What a self-obsessed generation we were, and seemingly, you are now. Yet, here we are, many of us the ‘wrong’ side of sixty, yet far from feeling redundant. It’s true, I know I am not as energetic, or as athletic as I was in my youth, but like many of my ilk, neither decrepit or enfeebled, but intellectually active, and certainly, not ready for the scrapheap!
It is not us who are worried about us getting old, but you, and it consumes you. But why not put aside those prejudices... You need us so much more than you think, and you can learn from us an understanding that, as attributed to David Bowie, “Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you were always destined to be.” So don’t lock us up, shut us down, or pack us in cotton wool.
Instead... let us be who, what, and whatever it is our destiny to be... seasoned... cultivated... prime... cultured... sophisticated... mellow... discerning... insightful... perceptive... erudite... omniscient... sagacious... choice... and... Oh yes... just a wee bit feisty when we need to be.