Half my life here / 50 the new 30 June 18, 2007

I’ve lived half my life here in The Lake District. And I’ve lived half my life. A man today might expect to live to 90 if he has never smoked, drank, had serious illness. I’ve had my excesses nevertheless.

As I head for 50, might not this be the new ‘30’? Might 70 not be the new ‘50’? Women as ever might live longer still. And what about age difference? Bruce Springsteen was saying in an interview with Nick Hornby that one has basically learnt everything that’s going to feed you and stimulate you by age of 12. My friend Andrew meanwhile, training to become a social care worker believes that the brain doesn’t reach its physical full size until about 22 , before which age one might expect to be “immature”. I reflected on a girlfriend I had who was 15 when I was 23. That seemed a big difference then. She became my girlfriend again when she was 20 and I was 28 and it wasn’t such a big difference – she was seemingly ‘catching up’. At 90 she would be 82 and we would both seem ‘much the same age’ to the outside eye. But perhaps I would remember our first meeting and still treat her with kid gloves.