SIXTY IS THE NEW 80

In case you haven’t heard already, 60 is the new 80 – so slow down and do what you like rather than what you’re expected (or driven by marketing) to do. The mindset of the world’s greatest predator and destroyer of its resources sure has been put into reverse gear by a microscopic ugly bug with tentacles or filopodia like a peculiar octopus.

The apex predator – with sufficient nuclear bombs to destroy its habitat – is running for cover… not to nuclear shelters but to cover its oral cavity with a piece of rag or paper.

Every day, some unknown expert is hoisted on TV with pseudo expert opinions regarding when the world will be back to normal. Considering the diverse range of opinions on offer, my take on these views is that they’re all hot air.

A sage once said that ‘if you can’t find good counsel, go your own way and live like the lone elephant in the jungle.’

So here I am, trumpeting from the jungle…

Like the earthquakes that occur in New Zealand, another virus will find us – created by the Chinese as God and Chinese fearing Donald Trump says; or by the creator as the godless and atheistic Chinese would say.

We in New Zealand had ample warning to prepare, and create wartime queues at the supermarket and liquor stores, followed by 28 days of quiet time to reflect and reevaluate our lives and lifestyles.

New Zealanders could visit the supermarket, the pharmacy and exercise locally. As for money, we do not know how much we’ll have by the end of the pandemic.


In the recent budget, New Zealand announced it would borrow some NZ$ 50 billion, which amounts to around 55,000 dollars per capita that needs to be paid off by close upon five million people.

However, New Zealand and Sri Lanka can feed their own people so we won’t starve – although a little starvation may be good in New Zealand as 30 percent of us are obese and social distancing is stretched with some of the obese being a metre or so wide.

Only the foolhardy would venture to predict what the future holds for the world. But I think that at over 60, I can see a ‘tunnel at the end of the light’ for me. This microscopic bug has shortened my effective life by 10 years at least.

With age 70 only a few years away, I’m suddenly on the list of endangered humans. Being the senior citizen in our home, my travel and freedom was curtailed by family imposed restrictions – I was permitted to venture to a pharmacy once and a supermarket twice… in 28 days.

I do not know your age… but this may be a good time to take stock of your values and expectations. Engage in a reality check, and evaluate what you really like to do – then compare it with what you’re actually doing because of what you think the world expects of you.

Are you simply doing what advertising makes you do? Do you really need that new iPhone or flashy car? Are you happy and contented or do you want even more stuff?

If there’s any advice I can offer, it is to live your life in the slow lane – cherish your life and those closest to you. This virus is harder on the elderly and every winter in the colder climates, we die like flies because of the winter flu.

There’s nothing to stand in the way of a new mutation of COVID-19 in the form of ‘COVID-20.’ It may return as El Niño did every few years. The Sri Lankan ‘neva gilunath ban choon’ mentality (the band plays on even while the ship is sinking) would stand us in good stead to overcome this crisis.

It’s strange that the global response to any crisis is to print money – trillions for the global financial crisis (GFC) and now, trillions for COVID-19; money may soon cease to have any value at all. The new currency could be milligrams of a COVID-19 vaccine, similar to ounces of gold or heroin today.

If private enterprise does come up with vaccines, it might be ‘goodbye poor people’ – in a capitalist context, you’re a failure and not worth risking the economy to be saved.

It’s been observed that ‘it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ But that was before 3D printing.

Today, the ‘one percent’ will 3D print a needle with a large eye. After all, gods and religions apparently love large stuff – as evidenced by churches, temples and converted museums.

For me, money has no meaning.

When I purchased my house – in an ordinary suburb of Auckland – it was valued at NZ$ 500,000 and I was supposed to feel like a 50 percent millionaire. Last year, it was valued at one million dollars and I was promoted to millionaire status. But in 2020, I will be downgraded to an 80 percent millionaire – all without any input on my part and still relatively broke.

Unable to influence the outcome, I simply accept it – alas, similar to a diamond miner in Africa, the value of what I mine is controlled by someone else.

As verse 204 of the Dhammapada extols, ‘health is the greatest gift, contentedness is the greatest wealth.’