Time on Our Side: Growing in Wisdom, Not Growing Old

Now that life expectancy in the developed world is well over 70, fear of imminent death has receded and been replaced by a dread of growing old. While our definition of old is dependent on the age we have reached - in our 20s we fear turning 30, in our 50s we fear turning 60 and becoming an old-age pensioner - we all share a horror of becoming one of those forgetful, incapacitated, ludicrous figures our parents, aunts and uncles may have become. Dorothy Rowe has talked to people aged from five to 95 about how they view ageing, time and death. She has listened to people from societies where the old are revered and respected as well as people from societies like our own, where they are not. She finds that our fear of ageing far outweighs the real difficulties, most of which could be ameliorated if we were sensible. When we are not, we find that as we advance through life, the mistakes we made in our youth often return to haunt us. However, we can change and Dorothy Rowe offers us in this book a distillation of wisdom which provides support and hope and a new way of looking at the future.