The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Saturday
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Turning 60 is something to celebrate, thanks to Nigella. And that’s not the only thing we’re now allowed to boast about
Hats off to Nigella Lawson, who has kicked off the new year with a celebration of turning 60 – “better than being young” – and overnight made that particular milestone one of the things we will, as of now, feel like boasting about.
Last year, if you were female and turning 60 you were somewhere between OK about the fact, and traumatised. As a general rule you were a lot less bullish than when you turned 50 (the years between 50 and 60 being when you gradually stop being convinced you still look 46 and realise your hair is several inches thinner and your features are going Easter Islandy. In my experience).
Anyway. It’s not just turning 60 that has newly become boast-worthy and something to shout from the rooftops. There’s a whole list of things that were previously shameful, or boring, or not worth thinking about, that are now on the boast list – prepare to boast about:
Being someone’s ex-wife or husband (and being on very good terms). Obviously Gwyneth Paltrow was ahead of the curve on this – establishing herself and Chris Martin as the happiest uncoupled couple in the history of divorce – but now the ball is rolling and you get more points for having a great relationship with your ex than for staying together. Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are the first once-married couple this year to stake their claim to being “good friends”. (They have a way to go, though; holidaying with current partners is the bar set by GP. Beach holidays. We don’t make the rules.)
Not drinking. Not just for January but forever. In pretty recent memory non-drinkers were only not drinking because they were alcoholics, now they’re the enlightened, healthy ones who just want to get more out of their day. Not drinking is where yoga was 10 years ago… the cranks’ hobby that became normal.
Not giving people presents (or as it is now known “just more stuff ”). Unless they’re under 18. In which case you might consider something like a compost awareness course.
“I’ve thrown everything out,” will be a classic spring 2020 boast.
Not being so clean. It’s started already. You go to people’s houses and they say, “Thought you wouldn’t mind: the whatsits slept in the sheets last weekend.” We’re sharing baths and towels, and refusing to wash our clothes until they are stiff, all in the name of eco-awareness. We now have full permission to be filthy.
Having disrespectful children. There is a big shift going on here. One year Dave Gilmour’s stepson is imprisoned for swinging off the Cenotaph, now we are in awe of The Young and their principled protests. Greta Thunberg has unleashed the earnest and sometimes angry adolescent and whereas previously they would have been sent straight to bed, and told not to raise their voice to granny, now they have the floor. Now you will hear parents boasting that their 15-yearold told Michael Gove to f--- off. Where this will end we are not sure.