It was a
lovely day and I was enjoying it, quite. The sun reaching us through the trees
felt wonderfully warm as my friend Alice and I strolled towards the tea-rooms
of Kenwood House at the end of that June afternoon: we had walked and talked
ourselves dry, and tea and cakes felt well-deserved. The large converted barn
building was now full of young families and a rather large number of older
couples. These days, ‘older couples’ means people my age, broadly, and most
appeared quite animated, talking and listening to each other with great
interest. I was touched, envious: so it could happen, companionship,
togetherness, how lucky some married people were!
I was then
jolted by a most unexpected realisation: they weren’t married couples! These
lively pairs were dating! Of course, silly me, married couples don’t talk, or
at least no longer do: so many got tired, bored of each other, ran out of
things to say. They even ran out of the desire
to share things with each other, that wonderful desire that launched them
towards this marriage, this family, these children in spite of life often
getting in the way with its accidents, illnesses, the demands of work and
others. What happened? We all had expectations...
I saw myself
too at the age of sixty-seven (not that long ago) launching with renewed hope
into a search for what could give new meaning to my life since I still had so
much to give, and wrote a book about it to help myself make sense of that
‘enterprise’*, which can be easy for some, and not for others... There was so
much to say. And it occurs to me that before we start playing with ideas of
separation, those of us who weren’t born yesterday, why not make sure we have
exhausted all avenues for renewal, in new conversations, new exchanges or
projects together, for it can be cold out there on your own.
If there is
a chance that we may find within us enough good will and IMAGINATION to reverse
the flow that’s carrying our present couple apart, let’s switch off the
television and invent new conversations, and if spoken words are hard, why not
leave a note (not a diatribe!) on the table? Or visit a loved place, start a
joint project, go on a date; do something new, fun,’ naughty; give a place to
an old wish. Think of what would fulfil you and see if you could share it.
Above all, keep communicating, since words are the first things to die, as well
as the first things we share.
Well, what do you think?
*‘TWO’S
COMPANY: Love Again, a Woman’s Journey’. In all good bookshops.
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