The not getting of wisdom
Following a recent trip away with an old friend to the tourist trap town of Bath, I have been reading a short book about Roman Britain. The average life expectancy during this time it tells me, was 37.
Apart from the mild shock of realising that if I was living around 150AD I’d be at pensionable age, it got me wondering what society would actually be like if it was run by people in their 20s and 30s – which effectively it would have been back then.
There would be a positive side of course – lots of fresh, new ideas with people more open to risk taking and change - but really, the idea fills me with horror. I’d like to think that with age comes wisdom (I’m patiently waiting for it to hit me at some point), experience and a more thoughtful, less black & white approach to life. Theoretically, older people should have a longer-term and just more sensible view of things.
Or perhaps not. These fledgling thoughts were easily dashed this morning by a quick listen to Radio 4 and a flick through the papers. North Korea, a country ostensibly run by a dead person (Kim Il-Sung) and a 70 year old (Kim Jong Il) is threatening South Korea and therefore my holiday to the region next week. Old age = wisdom? Pah!
Tags: rambling, selfish selfish selfish
November 25th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Age…hmm. I was waiting for the arrival of some golden age where I was too old to be treated like an idiot child, but too young to be dismissed as a doddering relic…and it seems I blinked and missed it.
November 25th, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Well, this answer will cost me another 20 minutes of my valuable life time…:-)
Dear C&R, you shouldn`t forget that the average life expectancy of 37 doesn`t mean you`re old if you are 37.
The misleading term is “average”. There were lots of older people then, and lots of people who died at an early age due to not curable illnesses.
A teacher told us once:
If your left foot stands in a bucket full of ice, and the right stands in a fire, then on the average you feel good…
Dear ishouldbeworking, I know exactly what you mean. It helps me to get used to the idea that the one condition doesn`t exclude the other. Maybe they`ll even change faster the older I get.
But, on a positive note, that gives me the freedom to act like a child or an old man whenever I want to…
Excuse me , gotta go, I promised to play with a neighbourhood girl now…
November 25th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Ha! I like your teachers saying Joey – although I do think that averages are slightly less extreme than that.
The most peculiar thing about getting older I think is that while I still feel young, immature and generally clueless about the ways of the world, many of my friends and colleagues are doing seemingly mature things like having multiple numbers of children. I know that deep down it’s all a facade though!!
November 27th, 2010 at 9:33 am
The older y ou get, the more odd it all becomes! when in my teens I remember a guy who used to go to the same nightclub as me… He was 27, and I thought it amazing he was still ‘getting out there’ at his grand old age! Now I’m 44 and turns out I feel much the same as I did in my mid to late 20s! I just look worse and feel more tired. I guess a teenage Piley would be shocked to find me still breathing at this grand old age. Still, when I’m 60 I’ll look back to my youth, and when I was ‘only’ 44! It’s all relative I guess.
Also weird I can look at people my age or even younger and think of rhem as ‘old’, yet never think of me as old!
P
November 28th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
Ah yes, I remember ‘old’ people out clubbing Piley. Old people being anyone over the age of 21. How ridiculous they seemed!
The idea that I alternatively love/find hideously disturbing is that when I was a kid I thought that my parents were positively ancient and past it. They were my age now!
Age… it’s all relative though isn’t it? My grandmother recently commented to me that I was ‘getting on a bit’. That’s rich coming from a 90 year old!
November 29th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
I was intrigued by Joey’s comment so googled ‘average age of roman emperor’. The top link is a discussion of this very topic: age versus fitness to rule.
There was plenty of variation in ages of accession of the emperors as it turns out- from 8 to 70something. I’m not sure whether age or youth wins the argument- but an example is made of the callous Nero who was just 17 when he got the job. Perhaps if he’d been a wise old head of 26 he’d have shown a bit more restraint.
November 30th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Jonathan! This might be the first example of someone ‘being inspired to learn something’ via this blog – even if the results are unconclusive. I’ll wait for a Horrible Histories item on this subject I think – that should definitely supply the last word.
November 30th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
Oh, I don’t know… I seem to remember it’s at least the second time as there was another post of yours that sent me scurrying off to Wikipedia to find the exact provenance of some Australian/ Merseybeat band who had featured in Song of the Week. Of course I have completely forgotten who they were now but still…
December 1st, 2010 at 8:44 pm
wisdom… not sure it has anything to do with age – I’m like Piley nudging 50 so clearly more than half way there (actually most male antecedents of mine died before 60 – so possibly only about 10 years left) but I’m still none the bloody wiser
December 3rd, 2010 at 12:30 am
Coff coff splutter!! Nudging 50??! Bloody ell I was still 43 a couple of weeks back, and now I’m nudging 50! What a day, awful snow, stitched up on the world cup and now that!!
December 3rd, 2010 at 9:44 am
I think I’m going to keep out of this one!