We Refuse To Grow Old Gracefully.

By Arthur Mwenkanya Katabalwa

There was a story on the BBC a while ago which showed that people of a certain age (like me) are continuously choosing to go for vacations where they can have fun http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p021qqp9. The over 40s are increasingly choosing to book their vacations to resorts like Magaluf, Ibiza and others the BBC finds out. We are refusing to age gracefully.

Last week, I was at a friend’s office in the evening having a cup of tea and biscuits with him when he told me about how he likes spending the weekends with his wife of 15 years. “I take her to Ange Noir and SQUEEZE HER!” he told me. This took me aback; these two go to Ange Noir and dance like kids who have just escaped from home. How cute!! Does that then sound like many of us do not want  to grow up.

Looking back, I think of what our parents were like when they were our age. We saw them when they were our same age but Lord they were not as badly behaved like we are. They kept certain decorum. Yes, many of our fathers are/were monogamous (some serial monogamists) but I can’t remember them going out and do what we are getting up to. Maybe it was the times. The political situation was not that stable. Or is it that as many of us were cooped up in boarding school we didn’t get to see them? It may be that rather than our more connected generation, they are from an era when they kept a lid on things.

But looking about me now I like the look of things. A number of my contemporaries post  some rather risqué photos of themselves on Facebook and I look on absolutely horrified wondering what will happen when their kids come of age and see these photos, But we seem to throw caution to the wind and go on regardless. It doesn’t help that our partners have been known to us for a life time.

Plastic surgery Addict, Jocelyn Wildstein

My father (RIP) once used a nick name he had for a school friend of his within my earshot. I could see that they both found it uncomfortable. Now, I am attending weddings where I can hardly remember my friends real name (Jova, that was a lovely wedding) because I have called him so since we first met. (How embarrassing can that be?) Last weekend I met up with another friend of mine from high school and I never hesitated to call him by the names I have always called him by, since school. His wife didn’t seem perturbed and neither did his lad. In fact I honestly think that he calls him Davie! When his kids spoke, I realised that they were using the same kind of slang that I have partially forgotten. His 14 year old daughter ran into the lounge and she was like: (that word ‘like’) “Dad, kara has fired!” to which he answered “Sawa”. If I had used that language to tell my father that we had a power cut he would have propagated a slap at 27MPH towards my sorry face! No sloppy language.

I think it’s the raise in a more affluent middle class that is more connected. We are vaguely aware (I am) to what our kids are getting up to. So we feel like getting more stuck to our youth and I see no problem to that. As long as I can go out and dance, get drunk and get up to all sorts of debauchery I will exercise my rights. After all my father told me that life isn’t a rehearsal. This is it.