Older people give so much more than they take from us  While we
treat the elderly as a set of symptoms and problems, we ignore
what we will be one day     • The Observer,     • Jump to
comments () Senior Couple Flirting in Pool "Older people are not
that much different from their younger selves: they want to feel
valued; have contact with others; give something back and have
control over their lives." Photograph: George Shelley/ Corbis
Andrew Motion has written a poem for the Joseph Rowntree
Foundation's new website, A Better Life, part of a five-year
project to promote a positive agenda for older people. The poem
distils fragments of lives past: red varnished toenails on a
Llandudno honeymoon; "defending the realm" as a soldier then
slaking its thirst as a brewer; Rowena who likes "a slice of
sponge cake". Well intentioned, the poem comes over with as much
bounce as a mattress with its springs taken out.  Ageing
undoubtedly has its problems, many of them created by those who
have yet to cross the threshold