Turning 50: Milestone or Millstone?

from Potton Aug 2020

Short Story - Lady Ice-Cream

We often hear fashion journalists declare that “50 is the new 30”. These days it certainly seems that the stereotypes of old age we grew up with are no longer valid. Improvements in healthcare, better fashions for older people and increased opportunities for leisure and enjoyment have combined to keep many of us looking and feeling more youthful than our parents did. “40 is the old age of youth, 50 is the youth of old age” goes the old saying, but veteran fundraisers such as Captain Sir Thomas Moore (better known as ‘Captain Tom’) and Dabirul Choudury ably demonstrate that today’s 50-year-olds could be looking forward to half a century or more of life.

Celebrities turning 50

When actor Matt Le Blanc became a quinquagenarian, he made no attempt to hide his feelings: “It sucks. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. You kind of go, wow, where does the time go? I feel like I just turned 40.” Happily, film star Julianne Moore has managed to be a little more philosophical about reaching her half century milestone birthday: “The thing about 50 is that you’ve clearly reached a point where you have more of your life behind you than ahead of you, and that’s a very different place to be in. You’re thinking, ‘I’ve done most of it.’ I don’t like that feeling. But it makes you evaluate your life and go, ‘Am I doing what I want to do? Am I spending my time the way I want?’”

Shakespeare’s take on old age

From the age of 50 onwards we enter what Shakespeare, in his famous “Seven Ages of Man” speech, has described as the fifth and sixth ages of man. As Shakespeare lived at a time when bubonic plague was rife and the average life expectancy was just 35 years, living to a ripe old age wasn’t an option for many. These days we may enjoy higher standards of hygiene and healthcare, but the arrival of Covid-19 has been a reminder that as human beings we are all still susceptible to disease. Turning 50 has a new resonance within the Covid-19 crisis, as it underlines the fact that old age is accompanied by increasing risk and vulnerability.

Remarkable recoveries

Antibiotics have conquered bubonic plague, and in the same way coronavirus will almost certainly be defeated, either by a vaccine, an effective track-andtrace system or a combination of both. Meanwhile there have been some remarkable recoveries from Covid-19, including 106-year-old great-grandmother Connie Titchen from Birmingham, who successfully fought off coronavirus. Connie Titchen’s granddaughter Alex Jones told Sky News that her grandmother had led a “really active life,” with hobbies that included dancing, cycling and playing golf. After avoiding two world wars and the Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918, Connie is a triumphant survivor. So whatever you may feel about turning 50, it seems the answer is not to fear what might happen, but to take care of ourselves and enjoy each day as it comes.

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