Kev Kennedy's Blog

Growing up or growing old?

I've recently noticed how I behave differently with certain friends. For example, I have some friends who would consider a good evening as playing on the Nintendo Wii until our arms ache. Then there are others who seem to call every invitation to their house a 'dinner party', and want to discuss their next skiing trip and whether the slow-down in house-prices will actually happen.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm happy to do both. Perhaps you need a balance. You can play Wii-Sports while talking about house prices, and you can host a dinner party where topics of conversation are a bit more interesting.

My wife, Kath, frequently visits a friend of ours who has a four-year old daughter. She's formed a bit of a bond with the daughter - they laugh and play together at being princesses or ballerinas. I'm fairly certain my friend's daughter thinks Kath is just a big-for-her-age five-year old. And I think that's how it should be, really.

I've reached the conclusion that you will grow up but you choose to grow old. For most of us, the latter stages of our life (ie any time after 70) are going to last for twenty, thirty, maybe even forty years. There's no rush for us to be old before our time. And even when we are drawing our pensions, we'll probably be happier if we've chosen to grow up but not grow old.

Created on Tue 20th November 2007 16:46