Reflections

"I think it's true to say that a great many of my age-range; those born in 1945 or a year or so either side; wake up in the morning and more or less offer an apology for still being around. Because, let's face it, we weren't designed to last this long. Thirty years, maybe; forty years tops. But mid-fifties? Do me a favour!
   "Like the people in Logan's Run [great book, pity about the movie], we weren't really designed to last much beyond the mid-Seventies. And while we may feel that our theme tune should be Forever Young, and we may be able to feel young-in-spirit at fifty-five, you sure as hell don't feel all that young in body at that great age.
   "Perhaps my self-perceptions are coloured by the knowledge that if I had been born in 1845 rather than 1945, I wouldn't have made it past the Big Four-Oh on purely medical grounds. And yet, I can see in others the same lack of a responsible attitude which is totally incompatible with the run-up to becoming a senior citizen.
   "But when you've lived with the guiding principle that what really matters most is doing what you want to do because you get only one shot at life, when you're still shutting the rest of the world out by playing the Doors, the Manic Street Preachers or a stirring piece of Wagner at high volume and you've got things organized so that you can stay up half the night watching American football during the NFL season, what else could any reasonable person expect?"