By: Blonde Two

People say a lot of things about age,

There was Mr Dylan Thomas (sounding a bit angry)

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

There was Mr Ralph Waldo Emerson (sounding a bit randy)

The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.

And there was Ms Joan Collins (sounding a bit desperate)

Age is just a number. It’s totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.

As today is my 50th birthday I feel I have the right to pontificate (can women pontificate?) on the topic of age. Looking at the quotes above I agree entirely with none of them but like elements of all. Dylan Thomas was right about keeping going but all that rage was clearly never going to help. Ralph Emerson (Waldo seems like a name too far) is right about older women, they have so much to offer the world, but as for fiddling… And I think Joan Collins completely missed the point about age, it is possibly the most relevant thing we can have. Age brings maturity and, that elite life-element that we don’t know we are missing until we have it, experience.

We in the UK are still not good with age, the word ‘granny‘ is used in a derogatory way and as for ‘millennial‘, you had better not get me on that topic…

… Although I am on the topic now and will continue (it is my birthday after all). It is not right to assign a group of people an expected set of behaviours because of their culture, gender or race (okay so hair colour is a dodgy one too), so why is it okay to assume that just because someone was born in a certain decade they will exhibit a range of tendencies of which their elders won’t approve? It gets my goat, and I like goats.

My forties were amazing (just look back at all the adventures on this blog) but I have decided that I like being 50.

I enjoy the feeling of being ‘experienced’ but I still enjoy learning

I love the ‘freedom’ that freelance writing gives me but still get a kick from working hard

And I appreciate the outdoors more than ever

Apologies, by the way, for this somewhat narcissistic blog post, it must be confusing if you are one of those people who thought that narcissism was only for those born in the 80s and 90s.

PS ‘Millennial’ is a forbidden word chez B2. Along with ‘micro-adventure’, ‘leverage’ and ‘moist’ (which B1 will tell you once nearly killed me!)

It is the done thing to challenge yourself on a big birthday. I don’t like running so read all about my 2018 ’50 Sleeps’ challenge here.

Outdoor Sleeping Beauty – 50 for 50