Writings

How to imagine yourself as an old person

Dismiss the idea of grandparenthood, of retirement, and of general retreat from life.

Embrace instead, a period of relative calm and prosperity, of the choice between a sedentary life of little variance, and the freedom to be reborn.

Count up the marks of time on your measuring tree.

Carry these in your pocket as a book of charms to defend yourself.

Once you're thus armed, you'll be suited for more than simple adoration or slow un-remembering, and at once be thrust into a limelight of wisdom.

Tell them you can trod around the world on new soles of toughened common sense.

Tell them you can pick up a mountain and place in on a pebble of sand.

Tell them you can anchor a lure in the bottom of the ocean to fish for a giant squid.

And reprimand Peter Pan for his silly sally to Never-witherland, because the secret to eternal youth,

as you've already discovered,

is learning how to imagine.