19 January

When I started in the workforce, I was a bit in awe of people in their 50s. They were the ones who knew how stuff worked, who had an authority about them because of their long experience. They were often the calm ones who had seen it all before, and ignored a lot of the work politics and just got on with fixing things. People looked up to them, for guidance. That’s inevitable, because people in their 50s are people at the peak of a career. Maximum ability and experience. Often having raised families too, so a lot of life experience under their belts. They run societies, you’ll notice most leaders in politics are in their 50s too. Right now that’s Gen X, the generation least spoken about. The generation trying to fix decades of lifestyle politics. It’s also why I probably seem a bit boring. In your 50s, I think your passion really should be dealing with the problems of the world. Not drinking, or travelling, or having a good time, or gigs and bands - those are the passions of adolescents. Not that you shouldn’t still enjoy those things, but it doesn’t sit right with me that they can be the centre of your life, in your 50s. The most ‘positive’ and exciting thing IS dealing with the world’s problems. It’s not ‘negativity’. It’s being a grown up. Solving big problems is sexy. How did this shift happen? I posted about it a few times. High school culture became our culture. Not an analogy, it actually happened. Which is why grown-up life now so often resembles adolescent life.