OLD AGE AND FREEDOM
Posted: 03 Feb 2026, 03:36
OLD AGE AND FREEDOM
22 September 2000
Every now and again I find myself thinking about ageing. It would be stupid and dishonest to try to pretend that it was an extremely positive process with no drawbacks at all. Of course there are, the main one is the deterioration of the body; I think I’m fairly lucky in this respect but even so I find that I have to modify my activities as the years go on to accommodate things like loss of flexibility and lessening of lung capacity. However, I didn’t start this paper as a vehicle for an extended whinge, I had other things on my mind.
There are many positive things about ageing and getting out of the rat race. I get incredible pleasure from the freedom I have to do exactly what I want. I was offered money the other day to do a consulting job on a steam engine by a large Metropolitan Council in the North of England and surprised them by saying I’d do it for them but at no charge beyond travel expenses and a free lunch. They were so surprised they asked me to explain why and I told them that once I accepted the money I was under pressure to perform and I have managed to get rid of that so there was no way I was going to voluntarily accept it again. They understood and I think it might have a good effect, I don’t think the people who were talking to me had ever looked at things in this light before.
Another positive aspect is the SEP syndrome. There is a shedding of responsibility, not only in everyday things but also in wider matters. Put simply, they become Somebody Else’s Problem, an SEP. I’d recommend this concept to everybody, when you see a problem ask whether it’s yours, you’d be surprised how many of them go away. Children come under this heading, as they collectively approach forty years of age you can start to relax about whether you are in some way responsible for their actions. Mind you, this is a hard one to grasp, I had to be reminded of it only the other day, and the interesting thing is that it was one of my daughters who focussed my mind.
But, I still haven’t come to the point that triggered this paper off. As part of my work to get my years of research in order, I have started the incredibly time-consuming process of converting the transcripts of the Lancashire Textile Project, the big oral history survey of the social and technological aspects of the textile industry which I did in Barlick twenty years ago, to disk, on computer. There are probably 2,000,000 words and it’s going to be a long haul. During the process I’m revisiting my old informants and being reminded of many things that had slipped to the back of my brain. Incidentally, I am awestruck by the capacity of my brain to remember things when triggered. I find myself remembering the next phrase I have to transcribe before I look at the page. This is one of the reasons why I decided to do the exercise, apart from the obvious advantages to posterity; it triggers my brain as to the linkages I have to make when I write the research up.
One of the subjects I have been reminded of is mill closure, the ‘weaving out’ of a shed. What a wonderful description and one that so perfectly describes the process of closure if you know the industry. The mechanics are that once the decision to close the mill is made, contractual obligations have to be fulfilled; cloth orders have to be completed. Because of the variables introduced by weaver’s ability, type of cloth, size of beam and individual looms, the completion of warps is staggered throughout the mill. This means that even when the stage is reached where all the weavers’ warps have been completed and installed, there is a relatively long period until the last warp is woven off. This is the point where the mill closes, when the last loom stops. The whole process is therefore, quite literally, weaving out.
In tandem with this diminuendo in the activity of the weaving shed there is a corresponding reduction in work throughout the rest of the mill. The slashers who size the warps are the first to go closely followed by the warp preparation department where the warps are prepared for the loom. Once the winders have produced enough weft for the cloth left in the looms, they go and the weavers are left working away at their own extinction in the shed. The engineer has his own problems, largely connected with accommodating ever-reducing loads without compromising fuel efficiency or smooth running. It is an art to run a large steam engine at full boiler pressure on little or no load and do it safely. The killer for the engineer though is the gradual extinction of regular maintenance jobs. Three months before the shed finishes you will be greasing a particular bearing and thinking, ‘This is the last time I’ll have to do this’. This pressure gradually mounts up as the workload declines and is a constant reminder of the approach of the day of execution, with no possibility of reprieve.
I was thinking about this yesterday and wondering whether it fitted as a metaphor for ageing. I decided that in many ways it does, gradual, recognisable, inevitable decline to extinction. But then I realised that there was a wonderful difference and finally, here is the message of this paper.
Whilst there are many similarities with weaving out, ageing is actually an entirely different kettle of fish. The greatest difference is serendipity enabled by positive attitudes. This is the best simple explanation I can come up with but needs explaining. Curiously enough, a survey last week revealed that the favourite English word was serendipity, ‘an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident’. I think I might have this aptitude because the thing that struck me was that the overall effect of ageing tends to induce a mind set that closely follows the pattern of weaving out, inevitable decline and the feeling that certain things will never happen again, that certain dreams will never be fulfilled and that because of the ageing certain things were impossible. I have realised that this just isn’t true, a positive attitude plus a bit of luck seems to encourage serendipity; as I told someone the other day, if anyone had told me five years ago that in the next five years I’d go round the world twice, see whales in the Indian Ocean, drive up Route 66 or achieve local fame as a writer I would have told them to dream on. All these things have happened and I have no doubt that more surprises are in store.
So, the bottom line is that it’s business as usual, all right, some functions are declining but others are growing at a quite amazing rate. Perhaps it’s because I’ve got time to hone skills and try new things, perhaps it’s because I have no fear of failure, or perhaps it’s simply experience. I don’t know and I don’t care, working that out is an SEP, I am too busy having a whale of a time and enjoying every minute. It may be that I am deluding myself but it feels all right and that’s all that matters.
SCG/22 September 2000
22 September 2000
Every now and again I find myself thinking about ageing. It would be stupid and dishonest to try to pretend that it was an extremely positive process with no drawbacks at all. Of course there are, the main one is the deterioration of the body; I think I’m fairly lucky in this respect but even so I find that I have to modify my activities as the years go on to accommodate things like loss of flexibility and lessening of lung capacity. However, I didn’t start this paper as a vehicle for an extended whinge, I had other things on my mind.
There are many positive things about ageing and getting out of the rat race. I get incredible pleasure from the freedom I have to do exactly what I want. I was offered money the other day to do a consulting job on a steam engine by a large Metropolitan Council in the North of England and surprised them by saying I’d do it for them but at no charge beyond travel expenses and a free lunch. They were so surprised they asked me to explain why and I told them that once I accepted the money I was under pressure to perform and I have managed to get rid of that so there was no way I was going to voluntarily accept it again. They understood and I think it might have a good effect, I don’t think the people who were talking to me had ever looked at things in this light before.
Another positive aspect is the SEP syndrome. There is a shedding of responsibility, not only in everyday things but also in wider matters. Put simply, they become Somebody Else’s Problem, an SEP. I’d recommend this concept to everybody, when you see a problem ask whether it’s yours, you’d be surprised how many of them go away. Children come under this heading, as they collectively approach forty years of age you can start to relax about whether you are in some way responsible for their actions. Mind you, this is a hard one to grasp, I had to be reminded of it only the other day, and the interesting thing is that it was one of my daughters who focussed my mind.
But, I still haven’t come to the point that triggered this paper off. As part of my work to get my years of research in order, I have started the incredibly time-consuming process of converting the transcripts of the Lancashire Textile Project, the big oral history survey of the social and technological aspects of the textile industry which I did in Barlick twenty years ago, to disk, on computer. There are probably 2,000,000 words and it’s going to be a long haul. During the process I’m revisiting my old informants and being reminded of many things that had slipped to the back of my brain. Incidentally, I am awestruck by the capacity of my brain to remember things when triggered. I find myself remembering the next phrase I have to transcribe before I look at the page. This is one of the reasons why I decided to do the exercise, apart from the obvious advantages to posterity; it triggers my brain as to the linkages I have to make when I write the research up.
One of the subjects I have been reminded of is mill closure, the ‘weaving out’ of a shed. What a wonderful description and one that so perfectly describes the process of closure if you know the industry. The mechanics are that once the decision to close the mill is made, contractual obligations have to be fulfilled; cloth orders have to be completed. Because of the variables introduced by weaver’s ability, type of cloth, size of beam and individual looms, the completion of warps is staggered throughout the mill. This means that even when the stage is reached where all the weavers’ warps have been completed and installed, there is a relatively long period until the last warp is woven off. This is the point where the mill closes, when the last loom stops. The whole process is therefore, quite literally, weaving out.
In tandem with this diminuendo in the activity of the weaving shed there is a corresponding reduction in work throughout the rest of the mill. The slashers who size the warps are the first to go closely followed by the warp preparation department where the warps are prepared for the loom. Once the winders have produced enough weft for the cloth left in the looms, they go and the weavers are left working away at their own extinction in the shed. The engineer has his own problems, largely connected with accommodating ever-reducing loads without compromising fuel efficiency or smooth running. It is an art to run a large steam engine at full boiler pressure on little or no load and do it safely. The killer for the engineer though is the gradual extinction of regular maintenance jobs. Three months before the shed finishes you will be greasing a particular bearing and thinking, ‘This is the last time I’ll have to do this’. This pressure gradually mounts up as the workload declines and is a constant reminder of the approach of the day of execution, with no possibility of reprieve.
I was thinking about this yesterday and wondering whether it fitted as a metaphor for ageing. I decided that in many ways it does, gradual, recognisable, inevitable decline to extinction. But then I realised that there was a wonderful difference and finally, here is the message of this paper.
Whilst there are many similarities with weaving out, ageing is actually an entirely different kettle of fish. The greatest difference is serendipity enabled by positive attitudes. This is the best simple explanation I can come up with but needs explaining. Curiously enough, a survey last week revealed that the favourite English word was serendipity, ‘an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident’. I think I might have this aptitude because the thing that struck me was that the overall effect of ageing tends to induce a mind set that closely follows the pattern of weaving out, inevitable decline and the feeling that certain things will never happen again, that certain dreams will never be fulfilled and that because of the ageing certain things were impossible. I have realised that this just isn’t true, a positive attitude plus a bit of luck seems to encourage serendipity; as I told someone the other day, if anyone had told me five years ago that in the next five years I’d go round the world twice, see whales in the Indian Ocean, drive up Route 66 or achieve local fame as a writer I would have told them to dream on. All these things have happened and I have no doubt that more surprises are in store.
So, the bottom line is that it’s business as usual, all right, some functions are declining but others are growing at a quite amazing rate. Perhaps it’s because I’ve got time to hone skills and try new things, perhaps it’s because I have no fear of failure, or perhaps it’s simply experience. I don’t know and I don’t care, working that out is an SEP, I am too busy having a whale of a time and enjoying every minute. It may be that I am deluding myself but it feels all right and that’s all that matters.
SCG/22 September 2000