Age is wasted on the young

As you get older there's one horrifying revelation that dawns, your parents were right about most things.

All those funny little sayings that when you wear the invincibility of youth are nonsense gradually, begin to come true. And I think the greatest of those is "Age is wasted on the young". You start to realise that some of those things you once dreamt you might do, or become, will never happen.

I'm just getting to the age when things ache, fall out, become crocked and generally nudge me that its now or never to learn mountaineering, scuba dive with dolphins, become a spy for MI5 (or even the KGB if I can retire to Cuba, please email if applicable), and the thing is, I know i'll probably never get round to doing any of them.

The problem is you also get old enough to know that you can't just pack up your troubles and head off, because you have to think about tomorrow, really you do. If I quit work now how will I ever afford a mortgage/have a management career role/settle down and have kids in time to enjoy them etc. Its crazy. But we're only human, we worry.

All this hit me the other day as I was sitting in the Tate Modern of all places. There was a 30 something couple with their young boy, who was actually quite a well behaved child, and I could see they were doting on him. But then nearby was this solitary old man looking over at the child. Now he wasn't staring in any creeping ulterior motive way, he was staring in a wistful way. I could tell that he was remembering what it was like to be young and have your whole life ahead of you and not a care in the world, and in his eyes I could also see the recognition that he knew his life was in its later years and that all his adventures were behind him. It was the longing to be young again and this time to do something with it, as you never know when it will have passed you by and your life will only be full of missed regret...