Denis: Fit for the age of experience

May 26 2009 by Denis Kilcommons

I SAW a headline in a newspaper that made me wince: “Brad Pitt still fit at 45” it said.

Why wouldn’t he be? He’s in the prime of his life.

The suggestion, in this youth obsessed age, is that the world is only to be enjoyed by those under 30. That life is for living only if you are young enough. Get past a certain age and forget it - order your zimmer frame and book a bed in the Fade Away Retirement Home for Gentlefolk.

Well, shoemakers to that.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes has just climbed Everest at the age of 65. Joanna Lumley has led a brilliant campaign that has had the Government in full retreat about the Gurkhas. She is beautiful, intelligent and 63.

Obsessing about age is past its sell-by-date and the concept is, quite frankly, a bit daft, because it is the older generation who, more often than not, have the disposable income to enjoy more of the good life than 20-somethings who are struggling to make ends meet and, let’s face it, haven’t had the experience to appreciate life in any case.