My love of the music of Leonard Cohen, a music muse of my earlier years, was reawakened after watching the 2022 movie Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song. Leonard Cohen is best known for his 1984 song, Hallelujah, that has had a renaissance among many artists during the last two decades. As a write this, I have Cohen’s silky and evocative voice playing in the background. Leonard Cohen struggled for periods of his life with depression but described his last years as having had a weight lifted off his shoulders that lead to renewed artistic creativity and a successful return to performing in the decade before his death at 79. A phrase from Cohen, talking about himself at the time was that entering the “seventies is the foothills of old age” resonates with me as I approach the midpoint of my seventies.
We live in a world that where youth is revered and the elderly are often confined to retirement villages and “old age” homes as the modern unitary family unit cannot daily or conveniently support an elderly person with potential infirmities. In fact, one of the selling points for the burgeoning retirement village “industry” is that an early purchase of a unit in such an establishment ensures the occupants of “frail care” when that is required. It is a fact that with advancing age that the occurrence of physical infirmity becomes more frequent but it is questionable whether the tendency to isolate older persons from their families and the wider society to preserve the unitary family of the modern world is advantageous and the best option.
The advance of technology in every day life is seen by many as beyond the ability of many “old people”. However, remaining connected with the world and mentally active is an essential element of retaining ones’ mental acuity, health and vitality. I have previously expressed my views on the implementation of a formal retirement age within many organizations and the negative consequences that this holds for society and those who are then obliged to leave formal employment at this age. Returning to Leonard Cohen it is remarkable that possibly the most creative and rewarding period of his life was his seventies as he entered the “foothills of old age”. It was a time when his body of work received the recognition that it so richly deserved. The advantages on an individual level of continued interaction with the world and wider society are manifold and are not promoted by isolation either physical or experiential.
In a wider context I am struck by how important it is to find ways to retain people with both experience and expertise and make this accessible to those still developing their careers. In the past the term, elder or elders, referred to a senior figure or group within a community to whom matters of importance could be referred for advice or decisions that would guide the communities or tribes in which they lived. Particularly in South Africa which has undergone tumultuous social change during the last two decades including in the health sector, an area in which I have the greatest personal experience, there is a need to retain expertise for as long as possible and as long as this continues to make a positive contribution to society. This need not necessarily be in remunerated employment or formal appointments but rather through the creation of mechanisms for those with less experience to benefit from that of “elders” who are still able and willing to make a contribution.
I am reminded of the words of the Dylan Thomas poem …
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
It should not be required or expected of those of advanced years, elders, to “go gentle into that good night” but rather to “burn and rage at the close of day”. The energy that is summoned by that call could be the spark that provides impetus to the positive change that this country desperately needs. Can we not rekindle the idealism that existed in 1994 with the dawn of democracy in South Africa? I recall the idealism and energy of many health activists in 1994 and the ambitious plans that were developed to take healthcare to a better future. Idealism and energy that is sorely needed now when so many aspects of our society, including the state of the public health sector, seem bleak.
I am sure that by harnessing the capacity and skills of all South Africans, young and old, that the current downward trajectory can be reversed. Let us “rage, rage against the dying of the light” and also rage against the dying of hope that the situation in South Africa can improve. By doing so we may all once again be able to rejoice with a shout of, “Hallelujah!” I fervently hope that as I journey through “the foothills of old age” that I will be there when that shout goes up!
