When I grow up, I want to be a village elder!
Plus a newly discovered zest for Poetry!
As I mentioned yesterday, I weekended in Rye, enjoying the sun, a splendid and generous party and seeing countless chums. Amongst their number, I bumped into Andy, who had travelled all the way from Bury St Edmunds, which doesn’t sound far but feels about the same in stress terms, as travelling from Cape Town to Durban by bullock.
Andy is what is now apparently called an Encore Careerist - if he were young, pretty and a girl, he might be termed an ingenue. As it is, and charming though he always is, he is considered an Older Emerger according to the genies who guard the interweb - or a Modern Elder. His new career path is art, and he showed me one of his works on his phone, entitled Class Test, which was supremely clever and which I would have happily bought, had I spare grand for such things.
The essence of this revelation was his determination to get a picture into the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. On the strength of the singularity displayed and on the assumption that I am not being naive and that Andy is not winding me up (all of which remain strong possibilities even now), he will do it, and from then on, his future is assured.
But of course, he had opened the doors to the rabbit hole, and like the fool that I am, I ventured into the world of the Modern Elder.
There I discovered, for example, a huge business centred around the Modern Elder Academy and the “campus” on Baja beach, run by a man who wears impossibly white shirts with unbuttoned long sleeves, possibly to display his “hereness,” his “nowness,” or his “immersion”. Then there are the Emerging Elders - but they are in Australia - natch! But wait; there is also an affiliation of organisations and individuals, also under the heading of Emerging Elders, who are committed to reawakening eldership at home, at work, and in communities. All well and good, but there was the tiniest hint of misogyny about the tab on their website stating “Every Male A Mentor.”
Everywhere I looked, I suddenly became aware of another group of wrinklies organising themselves into some “movement” or “institution”. Where the hell did they come from? I can understand that, to some extent, it’s been driven by the massive Baby Boomer generation entering their 60s and 70s. But this “Elder” thing is definitely a trendy, institutionalised tool for midlife rebranding. Perhaps it started with Mandela and Tutu, who founded that international non-governmental organisation of public figures using their collective wisdom to tackle seemingly insurmountable global conflicts. They called it “The Elders”.
Then you get the rebranding shift from Gran on sticks and Dad’s on a Zimmer, to real institutions, with “Elder Schools” beginning around seven years ago. It introduced the concept of the “Modern Elder”—someone who is simultaneously a mentor and an intern, blending wisdom with digital-age curiosity. About five years ago, (and as luck would have it!!!), academic medical literature began identifying Emerging Elderhood as a critical, distinct developmental stage requiring specialised psychological and clinical tools to navigate. BOOM - welcome to The Longevity Economy: The broader longevity and wellness market has ballooned into a multi-trillion-dollar industry. In the US, organisations have pivoted from offering basic “retirement planning” to selling high-end “elder wisdom retreats,” regenerative community real estate, and midlife transition coaching.
On top of this, someone grabbed a large can of AI accelerant and poured it onto the already-lit fire of over-50 obsolescence from emerging technologies, better software, and more powerful computing. This created an urgent, massive demand for programmes that teach older professionals how to convert their career experience into “elder guidance” rather than competing directly with younger tech-natives.
In today’s America, it is almost impossible to walk down a street without tripping over some new structured community to help Bob and Jean cross the bridge from midlife crisis to intentional elderhood.
Maybe I should start one here in Blighty… a club largely occupied by people aged 55+, (lets just call it a certain age), who perhaps enjoy and share one common interest, but where the age divides mean that the young never really interfere with the Oldies because one set is working and the other doesn’t have to, or is busy trying to reinvent themselves as an artist. It would obviously need a base in London, and where all one’s chums in racing, say, or perhaps backgammon, could occasionally meet up to discuss such things… What on earth would one call it? And would you offer Country membership to people who live in the country? And what would the Elders have to pay? Thank God I shall never have to wrestle with such conundrums.
Meanwhile, I have decided I, too, must have a Modern Elder target, and it is this: I want to become a member of the Chelsea Arts Club, which has delicious food, some very jolly members, and the most splendid garden. Art might be a touch too far - Andy is already a far better artist than I would ever be - so I think the Associate Membership is for me, open as it is to poets.
YES - POETRY!
My first volume (Poems Vol 1 Mangetout):
À la recherche du croissant perdu
Click the link above, or simply look under Culture - where else?
Who can forget the wise words of Pablo Picasso?
“Art is a lie that makes us realise truth.”