In the past, old age was a time to slowly withdraw from active life and start preparing for the end. Today, this stage of life is instead called to play a new role: life expectancy is rising, and the cult of youth tends to reshape and even erase this threshold altogether, fuelling the pipe dream of eternal productivity and vitality. As we extol immediate growth and success, and everything burns and is consumed right away, we end up inhabiting a sort of extended old age where people, institutions, ideas, and even nature itself deplete their potential as soon as they are born.
To throw a spanner into this system in which individuals simply drift along, Paulo Barone urges us to notice those discrete instants that escape he tyranny of productivity and speed, finding a spark of happiness even in life’s own fleetingness. Thus, being able to accept our limits, our own decline, and the precariousness of all things opens up a special kind of hidden beauty and a truth that contemporary culture tends to ignore.