Age Pride. Per liberarci dai pregiudizi sull’età

“Life is over when we stop moving. We have to be like athletes and move with life, pace ourselves, speed up or slow down on command, flex, then break into a sprint, never get thrown. We have to stay agile. Not young, but agile. Flexible. We need to learn to move with Time. Not by following outdated models, and never hiding. This above all: we must never hide”. A third of the population of Italy is made up of over 70-yearolds. These people still have decades of life ahead of them; a situation like this has never existed before. Is it a conquest or a condemnation? For it to be a conquest we need to be free of prejudices, those “fake truths that have never actually been verified, but that exist due to repetition, making us cowards and conformists”. These prejudices form the bars of the cage that imprison the third and fourth quarters of our careers as human beings. They need to be torn down so we can free up the strength and intelligence we have accumulated over the years, thanks to our experiences and self-awareness.Age Pride is an indictment against ageism in all its shapes and forms, including via introjection, of which we are often unaware. It’s a battle cry against the stigma that strikes those who are no longer young. But, above all, it is a well-circumscribed and convincing invitation to a possible party: we need to be proud of having lived, we need to share the desire to continue the journey of life, and consider each age as if it were a foreign land to be traversed with the curiosity it deserves – and not merely a stop on the Via Crucis to be dutifully accepted with resignation.By exploring her conflicted relationship with advancing age, Lidia Ravera lays claim to the majestic joy that hides within maturity, and explains how time can be transformed from an enemy – one that sneaks up on you, expecting you to unconditionally surrender – into an ally, allowing you to experience freedom and a true inner revolution.