Keep on keeping up

We are endlessly bombarded with advice on how to remain youthful. Speaking solely for myself, I think that ship has sailed. However, I can’t deny that I’m aiming to keep the best mental and physical health I can for as long as possible, so I do pay attention to advice from convincing sources, especially if it sounds like something I might want to do or, even better, something I’m already doing. Eat less meat – check. Learn a new instrument – maybe not. Family relationships are already under enough strain after three long lockdowns without being tested further by the plaintive notes of Cockles and Mussels reverberating around the house as I attempt to master the violin. I think we’ve all been through enough.

I try to practise tai chi every day and walk through a field from time to time, so I think that I’ve got the physical health thing covered, but how can I keep my brain active? Learning the violin doesn’t seem to be an option, so I’ll have to find a quieter form of mental exercise. Languages are great, but they’re not much fun if you’re prevented from travelling abroad to try out your newfound skills on unsuspecting native speakers. I don’t see any point in learning Japanese if I can’t go to Japan and entertain the locals with my efforts to speak their language.

I know that keeping up with technology is good for our brains and also very useful, but it’s deeply frustrating as well. I have seen what happens in the older generations of my family if you don’t embrace technology (or even give it a polite nod) – you very quickly get left behind and it’s not easy to catch up. So much happens online these days and if you don’t have a computer and a smart phone, life isn’t easy. Restful in some ways, but very inconvenient.

I do wonder how much keeping up we have to do. Should we all have a Twitter account? I did set one up years ago, but I never use it. I came to the conclusion that there were already more than enough opinions in the world and I don’t need to add mine or to seek out any more. What about Instagram? TikTok? Pinterest? Should I be posting videos on YouTube so that I can become a viral sensation? Then I could sell one for a lot of money as a non-fungible token (NFT) like the one of baby Charlie biting his brother’s finger, which just sold for $760,999. Before I started enthusiastically trying to keep up I thought that NFT was the National Film Theatre, but now I know better. Actually, I don’t. I’ve looked it up, but still don’t know what fungible means (something to do with mushrooms?). And what’s the point of owning a tiny video clip anyway?

It’s becoming obvious that I’m already falling behind. I blame my family. Personally I think that a creative rendition of Cockles and Mussels is a wonderful way to start the day.