Last week I received an email that deeply saddened me. It was from a friend who is a very talented journalist with vast experience. He told me he felt irrelevant.

Here is a man whose range of experience exceeds my own but with whom I share a number of common traits: We are both male, Pakeha, beyond the age nominally set for retirement, and recognised for what we were rather than who we are.

In his email he told me about a recent encounter which he said “does add to my sense of irrelevance”. In spite of the fact he had not been driven by monetary reward, he “never had so much as a cup of coffee” with those to whom he had offered his services. He was ignored.

I was saddened not only because I greatly value our friendship but because he is yet another casualty of systemic ageism.

I began my reply to his email with this: “Let’s get one thing straight: You are not irrelevant, have never been irrelevant, and will not be irrelevant for as long as you draw breath.”

That is the reality, but the perception is vastly different. Continue reading “No, my old friend, you will never be irrelevant” →