You'll See, Eventually...

If ever I hear someone in my earshot use the phrase "Oh she/he/they are young at heart..." I will personally stifle the very life out of them with a still-strong hand to the throat. I heard this phrase used tonight on a repeat of the portrait-artist-reality-TV-thing, in reference to Judy Dench of all sodding people: young at fecking heart! She's a titan of the theatre, film and TV, and that's all they could see in front of them: an old woman who is 'young at heart'. Anyone who employs this phrase to describe someone - anyone, and I don't care how fecking old the person referred to is - is guilty of being an absolute, patronising shit and should be slapped about the face with a wet fish forthwith until they see sense. Trite cliches such as this one are demeaning and frankly offensive to those so described: just like any other societal grouping, minority or otherwise - and us boomers are in the majority at present [yes, you'll be rid of us all soon enough through natural wastage, and maybe then you can stop carping on about our supposed 'charmed and privileged lives' and get on with your own] - we are entitled to the same respect and equitable treatment as you would expect for yourselves.

I'm seventy and am more angry and motivated now than when I was twenty, but neither would I demand nor expect any special treatment or privilege. All I actually want is to be treated exactly the same as I was in my younger years, rather than as someone alien, out-with the society in which I live and with which I participate actively. Oh, and as Jane said tonight, the general assumption that old people want to be young again? Do us the courtesy of appreciating that we have the memories of all the hassle, stress and grief of adolescence, and that frankly we'd rather not want to go through it all a second time: we had our fun then, and we continue to have fun without the anxieties of youth to go with it. Life itself is the death sentence, not age. To quote Bob Dylan [showing my years, eh?] yet again: 'He not busy being born is busy dying'; or my favourite latin - and my now adopted - motto Oriens Morior, Moriens Orior, cf blog post 'Falling'

Oh, and on a final note: when on earth did the fucking UK State Pension - a compulsory, contributory saving to one's own welfare during work and thereafter, personally paid for by at least thirty years' worth of National Insurance contributions, suddenly become a benefit? Talk about rewriting history and reality: if there's one mis-step that this current Labour [disclosure: lifelong Labour Party member talking here] government have made in their few short months of tenure, it's exactly this appalling mis-characterisation of a basic, paid for, copper-bottomed, entitlement. But this is par for the political course these days: change the terms of reference often and repeat the lie: trust that the change in reality will be lost on those who really don't know, understand or care what came before. All I would say to anyone without a good few years experience under their belt is look to the past to see if what you are being spoon-fed in the present actually adds up. History holds far more truths than the crass soundbites of the present, and your future is yours to lose if you believe half of the shit that's foisted on you by the greedy and mendacious who cleave to power for its own sake. Get critical, get thinking: don't distrust everyone however: just do your research, find the trustworthy, and stick to them. It ain't easy, but that's life, and it's do-able...