young enid

for fun monday, enid has looked through her old photos and found this one of her in the back garden with her father when she was about two. she doesn’t really like looking at it - seeing the past like this just makes her wistful. the enid child there on the lawn has life ahead of her; there are so many possibilities, so many things she might do, people she might marry, careers she might choose. back then, none of her wave functions had collapsed. but now, in 2007, there are just choices made, and not always good ones.

enid’s father is 73 now, and his features have been smudged by age. age does that - it takes people’s faces and rubs out the hard lines of youth leaving watercolour old people with just a wash of grey.

according to sally, enid’s dad is 53 (say). his friend fred, who's the same age, would also be 53 (say). this , to enid, shows a slight weakness in the system. suppose, enid thinks, we were actually as young as we feel - if we measured mind’s actual years by enid (maybe), then enid’s dad would be about 45 (maybe), which is a lot more accurate. enid's dad likes to travel to new countries (even molvania). he thinks you should keep living until you die. he does the times crossword every day, and although he says he’s not as good at it as he used to be, he still impresses enid, who can’t do crosswords at all and thinks she ought to learn before her brain rots.

in this system, fred would be 83 (maybe). fred bangs on about his poor health, the old days, and the number of immigrants mr blair is allowing into the country these days. fred never tries a new thing, or reads a new book. fred has nothing left to want.

but the best thing about maybe years is that they can reduce. take up a new hobby, make new friends, learn to do the crossword - and you can wipe ten years from your age (maybe).

p.s. enid would like a better acronym for maybe - if you have any suggestions, please let her know.