Saturday, March 30, 2019

A Discussion Document. Provocation and Proposal




I prepared this as much as a provocation for reflection and ideas as a draft proposal for action.  I sent it out earlier in March  to cultural and third sector organizations, university contacts and other interested parties.  Being too long for a blog post I am happy to forward it on if you comment here asking for it. 

These things are never complete; the whole purpose is you remember other arguments, new events happen and so forth.  This is the very much the purpose of this blog. So two further additions to that discussion I offer here.

Firstly, I am reminded of women who extend child bearing through their fifties and even beyond.    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/aug/21/becoming-mother-in-50s-number-births-soaring  Nothing new here.  I have two friends who gave birth in their late forties. Medical advances have  extended these events further along the life course, simultaneously shifting the cultural structures of our lives.  But there have always been later life fathers at the school gate.

Secondly the  film maker Agnes Varda has just died.  For me she was not just such a remarkable role model within the arts and beyond.  As I have indicated, her  collaboration with the photographer and installation artist JR captured the power of creativity to subvert the boundaries society imposes on us.  This provided the inspiration for New Wave Ageing.




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