"How terribly strange to be seventy ..." July 2024

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.