poliphilo

There are scripts for everything in life. How to be male, how to be female, how to be young, how to be old, how to be black, how to be white, how to be British, how to succeed in business...

I can't say I've had a particularly adventurous life, but I like to think I've done a fair bit of improvisation. It occurs to me that my reluctance to stick to scripts is what fuels my recurrent anxiety dreams about being on stage and not knowing my lines and standing at the business end of a church and not being able to find the right place in the prayer book.

At 67 I find myself glancing around and thinking, now what is the script for being this age? Where are my role models? What is expected of me? Do I dare to eat a peach?

My grandfather joined a bowls club. Now that's one trap I have no intention of falling into.

When Diaghilev hired Jean Cocteau to work on his ballets, Cocteau asked him what exactly was expected of him. "Come on Serge; give me a job description," And Diaghilev said, "Astonish me!"