All The World's A Stage

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...and all the men and women merely players...

Age. It's what we do. No matter how long or short the time we are here. Fact. Growing old can be a ball-ache: stuff breaks, things no longer work as expected, ache or hurt like buggery. Our once pristine looks are carved and greyed, memory faulty, tempers frayed. What the feck: who gives one? It's life.

Last night we watched the best portrayal of ageing on film I've ever seen: 'Quartet', directed by Dustin Hoffman. I don't know how I've missed this one before, as it was made in 2012, but for once, an honest portrayal of growing old, without condescension or sentiment, mawky soundtrack or any of the other bollocks that normally obtains with these things.

I realize that I've reached that point in life where family and friends have fallen and are falling by the wayside at an increasing rate; that physically and mentally we are all changing. This does not diminish who or what we are, but rather modifies us, just as childhood gives way to adolescence, adolescence to adulthood etc., [insert the rest of Jacques soliloquy here].

All said, we are all still who we are until we're not, thence to exist only as someone else's memories. But until that time... we all have our exits and entrances and though I slip gently into that sixth age - oh, sod it: leave it out, there's time enough for that. I learnt that bloody speech off by heart when I was but a youth...

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