In case you don’t recognise the quotation … it’s from the song, ‘Bookends’ by Simon and Garfunkel from the album of the same name. The full stanza is: ‘Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly? How terribly strange to be seventy.’ I have often thought about that line – especially in the past few weeks as I passed my own seven-decade milestone. ‘How terribly strange …’
But here’s the thing. And I hope this is a welcome reassurance
to anyone reading this who still has a way to go before reaching the dreaded
birthday. It isn’t strange at all. Seventy
is normal. There’s nothing to look at here. I’m living my normal life. I’ve a
new novel coming out next year and one already in the blocks following behind.
I’ve finished the manuscript for a book I’m calling, ‘The Climate Crisis
Picture Book.’ I’ve been walking the
Offa’s Dyke Path with Sue and with friends. I’ve been on the zip wire at Blaenau
Ffestiniog. I still go to rock concerts. I still travel. According to the Stepz
app on my phone I walked 4.7 million
steps in 2023 which works out as around 13,000 steps a day. And I don’t say
this to brag, I say it because every seventy-year-old I know (and I know a few)
would tell you much the same thing. I couldn’t imagine sharing a park bench
quietly with any of them.
A week or so ago a whole crowd of my family and my very good
friends ambushed me with a surprise party. It was a genuine surprise. It was
lovely. We partied into the night. I love every single one of them for being
there and for keeping the secret and for being such amazing people. I was too
shocked and unprepared to give a proper speech, but if I had I’d have told them
every day of our lives is a precious gift. And don’t be afraid of seventy. It’s
ok. For me, seventy is the same as fifty but with problem feet.
The album ‘Bookends’ came out in 1968. Paul Simon and Art
Garfunkel were 26 years old when they recorded it. Of course they
thought seventy would be terribly strange. When you’re 26 even 30 is pretty
strange. Today they are 82. Older than Joe Biden. I bet they think differently
now. I do.
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