"The Old Fools" by Philip Larkin (poetry reading)

Larkin had a persistent terror of death and he wasn't looking forward to old age, either. He needn't have worried, it never happened. Larkin died at 63.

Freud said that the unconscious mind did not believe in death because it considered itself immortal: therefore repressed fear of death didn't exist or motivate decisions or actions - and fear of death is really fear of having your balls cut off because you fancy your Mother. Believe me, I don't make this stuff up:
"a secondary substitutive phenomenon of the castration fear which grew out of an inadequately resolved Oedipus Complex". If you feel the need to comment keep it relevant and impersonal, please.

The Old Fools Larkin describes are suffering from illness, not old age. Such illness is not an inevitability and some people live long active lives. However it is a strong possibility and that's a good argument for staying busy and eating a sensible diet, i.e. don't live on tea and biscuits, like so many old people do.

We live in a society that is most prejudiced against old age. People are so afraid of looking old that they have plastic surgery to look a freaky forty rather than a nifty fifty.

Palmerston was Prime Minister of England at 81, Gladstone at 84. Titian was still painting at 98. Chaucer didn't start "The Canterbury Tales" until he was 63. Tennyson wrote "Crossing the Bar" at 83. Cervantes finished Don Quixote at 68. These are not exceptions - most old men still have their faculties.

Plenty of old guys still have a happy fulfilled life with better sex than they ever got in their twenties: they're more likely to know how to do it properly because they've had more practice. Many old people will tell you they got happier with each decade. The other thing an older man can do better than a younger man is drive a car. Insurance companies think so and it pays them to know.

Also it seems that a man never gets too old to father a child. Charlie Chaplin did it at 73, Anthony Quinn at 81, Pablo Picasso at 68. Children of older fathers do have a higher risk of autism but Dad is more likely to treat them responsibly and more likely to bestow wisdom and wealth - and sooner.

"The Head of an Old Man", was by Peter Paul Rubens, 1610

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[Oakleaf700]

Well, none of us know what will happen after death- but as Larkin says-''we shall all find out!'' personally I think there is a chance of some sort of afterlife, and i really hope there is, as it would be lovely to be reunited with old friends, old dogs, and beloved family members... And if it is only Oblivion, like the blackness of a general anaesthetic, well, at least we won't be aware of it!

[ElysianFields100]

Most old folks aren't wise; just clever

So they remain silent, cuz they know better

[D375]

Getting old isn't optional - but acting old, is ....

[aesthetic1950]

"We live in a society that is most prejudiced against old age. People are so afraid of looking old that they have plastic surgery to look a freaky forty rather than a nifty fifty." AMEN.

[Kosta5g]

I am in no position to say whether sex in the 60s is better than sex in the 20s...but it sounds like something to feel good about.

[alanna4858]

Better sex? Really? Well I am 24 and not in the least prejudiced against older men. I knew that some of the best works have been done by older men. I like older men.