5 positives about getting older

… and by getting older I mean quite a bit older, like over 70. And of course excluding the obvious ‘it’s better than the alternative’.

You qualify for discounts. That’s the big financial one of course and it ranges from free bus passes on the one hand through special lunchtime menus at pubs to lower priced admissions to some events and visitor attractions. Notwithstanding the limitations sometimes applied these are all good value and they’re all money in the bank.

You get to tell war stories. Well not really about the war but along the lines of ‘I remember when …

… you could buy a pint of bitter for less than two shillings (10p)

… cigarettes didn’t damage your health and you could get a pack of B&H Special Filter for five shillings

… you took all your photos on film and sometimes waited months before you saw them

… the only olive oil in the house was there for medicinal purposes

… your computer measured its basic RAM in KB, its hard drive in MB and used 360 KB 5.25-inch floppy disks

I could go on but you’ve got to know when to stop because there’s a limit to what people want to hear!

You have more time on your hands and can get up when you want. Without full time work you’ve got more freedom to do what you want to do and if that means obsessing over a hobby or making coffee with a friend last a full morning so be it. It’s now your time and you can do what you want with it.

You feel less obliged to say yes. When you’re asked to volunteer, to get involved or lend a hand you can say ‘no’ without being regarded as being unsupportive or unhelpful. On the one hand you leave space for younger people, on the other you’ve got less drive and physical strength and, frankly, can’t be bothered.

You’re allowed to behave badly. With both parents sadly deceased you’ve no-one to tell you off for misbehaving. So you can drink what you like when you like, although the maturity that comes with age fortunately moderates that, you can sleep in late (see also above), you can take the trips that you want and choose to do whatever it is you want to do. Actually this positive would be better worded ‘you get to choose to do what you want’ but it wouldn’t have quite the same impact.

And finally a sixth positive which is really about minimising a negative.

You’re not going to have to put up with this shit for much longer. I’m talking about the bad trends in the world whereby the megarich act like the rules don’t apply to them, the right wing can insist that black is white to justify its stupidity and much of the media seems to forget that a major reason for its existence is to hold power to account. I worry about the world that my grandchildren will inherit.