The Uncharitable Interview

Sex, jealousy, fantasy, infidelity, the female nude. Are you young? Then these and many more controversial or even taboo topics are always on the table.

But what if, like me, you are in late middle or early old age? Do you have the added handicap of being plain, just an ordinary woman or man: especially a man?

Do you feel invisible, as though your views, thoughts and feelings don't matter? Are you interested in the subjects listed above? We are told not only by the young and the beautiful, but by people of our own age that discussion is inappropriate for us.

We must grow old not only gracefully but silently.

In my short story, the fictional 'ordinary bloke', James McCarthy, 69 years old, wins a charity competition and gets the chance to discuss, with an alluring female celebrity, a long list of subjects that are still important to us, men and women: love, marriage, sex, fantasy, fidelity,affairs, jealousy, abuse, divorce,raising children, the aesthetics of the female nude,television, film, censorship, feminism, male stereotypes.

And you get the bonus story of a personal conflict, contrasting life styles, and a powerful temptation.
This is fiction, but the emotions, the passions are very real. I am not ageist-younger adults too are welcome to explore these issues and formulate their views.

The more mature among us can echo the title of Phil Collin's book:

'NOT DEAD YET'.

Remember young ones: you may well go to bed tonight aged 25.

But tomorrow you will wake up aged 70.