Old And Wise

[poliphilo]

OLD AND WISE                              

                                   

To turn into an ancestor

While still alive, to become a shrine

Of wormy wood and joss-stick ash:

It could happen any time now. Your grip

Loosens and the pitons go

And you slither down into the blue-green gulf

Where all your dreams become posthumous.

Comments

[oakmouse]

It's liberating in my experience also. Age causes people to drop their expectations of you --- not in the sense of expecting less of an older person (although that's often true as well) but rather in the sense of no longer bothering to try to make an older person fit into the prescribed socially acceptable categories. Turning 40 was one of the most freeing experiences of my life. Overnight the BS I'd gotten for years about my failure to behave like a conventional person evaporated. I'm not sure why; I didn't go around wearing a sign that read "Officially Middle-aged Now"; but I welcomed the change.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a point at which non-conformist behaviour that threatens the status quo switches over into harmless eccentricity.

At 56 I guess I've been in the later category for a good while now.