A mischievous defence of transitoriness that puts the case for enjoying all phases of life's fleeting journey, from the larva of babyhood to the butterfly of old age.
Youth is our most sought-after-elixir. Wrinkle-free faces, fail-proof bodies, immaculately restored houses, brighter works of art - anything that will keep death and decay at bay. But what about the old, the ruined, the disintegrating? Taking the natural and animal worlds as his models, Midas Dekkers argues that to deny them is to deny life itself. Decline is the clock by which we tell how far we have travelled; dissolution, not survival, is the norm; and old age is the fulfilment not the failure of our advancing years.
In this quirky and highly entertaining book, Dekkers enjoys challenging our most cherished beliefs in order to make us look at life with new eyes.