Old Age

This is once again a piece I wrote for my writers group the subject being Old Age. As tends to be my go I wrote my piece from a humorous point of view

As I approach a significant milestone Birthday later this year it is time to decide when to become old. I mean sure the body isn’t what it was even 10 years ago but it’s what’s in the mind that’s important right?

So is this the time to settle on my age, to stop listening to new music,watching new films, keeping up to date with technology, social trends, new tastes and to a lesser extent fashion and simply pick a decade of my life where things were most ideal and settle in that timeframe and mindset. Never to emerge other than to shake my fist at passing clouds while muttering that realistically everything after the White Stripes was just too derivative and failed to add anything new to music. To move from JJJ to MMM and listen to the greatest hits of AC/DC and the Angels on high rotation.

To only watch movies that I’ve seen a dozen times before, while muttering that although Tarantino’s later stuff was OK, it dropped away immensely after Kill Bill Vol 1 and that the endless stream of Superhero movies should be stopped immediately unless of course it’s another Batman re boot because seriously all the super hero films should feature Batman.

And surely I don’t need a new phone, or an iPad or a laptop, surely I could return to the simplicity of a phone from my glory days and the magic of ink on paper and let’s face it, sitting in the pub writing in a notebook as opposed to on a notebook PC has a certain charm, Like I’m James Joyce in Davy O’Byrnes. Or it might make me look like what I am, an old bloke with a notebook. Speaking of pub, is it time to stop trying new beers? Rather than exploring the latest Gose, Double IPA or Nitro stout perhaps it’s some to settle on something more shall we say bland, I won’t go as far as returning to the beer of my youth, the Bush Chook: Emu Export. For a start all the young blokes and girls are drinking it like it’s the nectar of the Gods. Though I can never tell if they are doing it ironically or not, I mean how do you even drink a beer ironically? No maybe it’s time to produce some undrinkable home brew that is neither cutting edge or cutting the mustard but at least has a certain cheapness to it.
Speaking of cheap, is it time to start drinking Service station coffee rather than from my local cafe? Do I really need to know the family history of the person growing my coffee? Or which side of the hill? And do I really want the person serving me to know my name?

I think I’ve been pretty progressive too but is this where I should call a halt, to end the Rage against the Machine and admit that I’m really just a cog in it, that instead of fighting for the revolution I should just be telling the neighborhood kids to get off my lawn. Although the revolution will not be televised I’m sure I can follow it on Facebook or Twitter without actually getting too involved, particularly if the weather isn’t great that day.

There’s a lot to ponder, and a lot of considerations to make, but maybe I’ll just have a nap before I make any big decisions.