The uses of old people

Faced with the ageing body, which demands so much more maintenance as the years accumulate, a kind of loving patience develops towards what used to work but now can’t be taken for granted. 

It’s a short step to know that it’s the same with the country we live in: maintenance is required. Care. Things deteriorate unless you look after them. You can’t just throw away a landscape and buy a new one. You’re in it, it’s big and slow and the work of looking after it is constant. If you don’t put in the time and effort, you will suffer the consequences. If you do make the effort, then life is better.

When Landcare committees bemoan the absence of younger people in their ranks, I think they ought to value the sensibilities that only mature with age, and make this part of their offer to young people. 

Visit your local Landcare committee, and you’ll see a lot of grey hair. Believe it or not, these old folk were rebels in their time. They took up landcare in their twenties and thirties, battling the scepticism of their peers, and they changed the country, so that now we’re used to seeing creeks shaded with trees and paddocks with shelterbelts. They changed expectations too, so that looking after the natural systems of a property and its wider landscape is now the norm, not the exception.

But the rebels are headed for their seventies, they’re tired and they feel like a break. Where are the young people? Where is the raw energy and smarts of those just breaking into agriculture? What about the kids asking for climate action? Why don’t they get on a train and learn what it takes to look after a river? That youthful energy is one pole, but the other is the gravity of older people; oh alright – old people! They appreciate the need for constant care, but what else do they bring?

Old people know you can be wrong. We all make mistakes, yes, that’s an antidote to missteps that come with any serious purpose. But older people know that you can be head down a wrong track for many years and not know it, in a job, in a relationship, or with a grand plan, and then the trail peters out. Or you can arrive and find this is not what you wanted. The disappointment leads some to retreat from the world, to play it safe. For others, being wrong pushes them to look harder at their enthusiasms and to question what they take for granted. Older people are more sceptical and hard-nosed, and carry their enthusiasms more lightly. 

Old people know action leads to understanding. Landscapes are complicated. Having done a lot to look after properties and places, having been through the mill more than once, older people are wary of simple solutions. They are wary too of trying to know everything before starting. You don’t know what you don’t know until you get started; only then do you discover what will turn an idea into reality. Not knowing is not easy to bear, but older people have learnt to live with this. 

Old people know change takes time. They might wish things would happen faster, but older people know that changing people’s attitudes and behaviour takes a long time, just like changing landscapes. So find satisfaction with each step along the path, not just with the elusive end result. Things are exciting at the start, but when that wears off, there’s still work to be done. Older people remind themselves of what’s important, and keep going. 

Older people are grumpy, cantankerous and hard to please. Let’s celebrate their knowledge as part of learning how to living responsibly in this country.

Ross Colliver, Riddells Creek Landcare