Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

The Duke of Edinburgh is to be congratulated on his decision to give up his driving licence, because in doing so he allows millions of other people in their senior years to follow his example and consider what changes in lifestyle would be for their benefit and that of others. This is not a broadside against older people; not at all. Indeed it riles me when in print or in parliament we are warned of the difficulties of Britain having an 'ageing population'. The very phrase is tautologous. Every living individual and every nation under the sun is ageing. It's part of being alive, we can't avoid it. A new born baby is ageing at exactly the same rate as her grannie. We don't stay in our nappies forever. Ageing is a sign of growth not an existential indictment. The truth is that far more of us live longer than our parents or grandparents did, largely due to a succession of advances in medicine and social care. But if society laments growing older, religious communities have to maintain, from a biblical perspective, that old age comes with great expectations. At the very start of the history of the three Abrahamic faiths – Judaism, Christianity and Islam - is the story of an old man aged 100 called Abraham and his 90 year old wife called Sarah who are told by God to go on a journey and start a new nation. Indeed in the Christmas season, now long passed, God calls another retired couple - Elizabeth and Zechariah - to be accomplices in the new thing God is doing. This is the vocation on us as we grow older: not to cling to positions of power, responsibility or status until we die, wary of letting anyone younger take our place. Rather, as we grow older, we should recognise what we no longer need to do, give that up and use our energy to enable and encourage those who come after us. Since I was very young I always looked for an older person I could emulate. I do it even yet. Two days ago I had a gregarious dinner with a young lady in her early eighties. I hope I am as generous and politically astute when I am her age. Last month I danced in a friends' kitchen with his mother-in-law who is in her nineties. I hope I will be as lively and positive when I am her age. But one thing I will not do is emulate the Duke of Edinburgh by giving up my driving licence, for the simple reason that... I've never had one.