Older

I seem to be reading a lot of articles about ageing lately. The Boomers (talkin' 'bout my generation) are becoming elderly or nearly so, and we are starting to think about retirement and associated questions. Apparently one of the things we shouldn't do is make statements like "I'm too old to..." (fill in sentence of your choice - cycle to China, take up skydiving, etc.) or say "My mind isn't what it used to be". These statements, made often enough, will turn out to be true, apparently. Which seems fairly like woolly, magical thinking to me, but I'll let that pass.
    What worries me is that it will no longer be acceptable to slow down as you age. All those bloody people who do take up crocodile-hunting in their nineties will be held up as some kind of model to emulate; those of us who want to take it a bit easier will be named and shamed as letting the side down. Good old Baby Boomers, competitive to the last. If you don't have an all-terrain walker frame or a four-wheel drive mobility scooter, you will just be so socially dead, my dear. Is this all part of a cunning plan to get us to forgo retirement completely, so governments don't have to spend money to keep us in idleness? We can slave away till we drop, and this will be held up as something praiseworthy.
    And have you noticed that it's not acceptable for anyone to relax anymore? We have to be busy, busy, busy all the time, keeping fit, being competitive, being creative...etc, etc. I notice this especially on Sunday mornings as I drive to work. (Yes, I work Sundays, a victim of the 7-day a week society). In the good old days, people used to have a lie-in on Sunday mornings; now they're up jogging, walking, base-jumping, cycling, going out for brunch, and yes, going to the library. A human perpetual motion machine of purposeless activity for the sake of activity. I've just read an article in a women's magazine about a family deciding to get Wi-Fi and Sky at their beach house, because they're "bored" with all that nature and peace and quiet. So why not sell the place and stay home? I despair of humans, I really do. Guess I'm just getting old.