We got the first Harry Potter film out on DVD for our kids to watch this week. Although they've seen bits of various films on the television, it's the first time they've properly sat down and encountered Harry Potter. As I'm sure most of you will know, this first film revolves around the Philosopher's Stone. Someone had been using it to keep themselves going and he was outrageously old! When the stone was eventually destroyed, the poor chap had to put his affairs in order and prepare for the end.

The desire to evade the encroaching signs of old age are all around us, with hair dyes to cover up the grey, make up and face creams to 'avoid the appearance of wrinkles', exercise regimes to keep us trim and, for the more desperate, face lifts and tummy tucks. We're immersed in a culture that tells us there is something wrong with getting old, and we fall for those messages hook, line and sinker.

This struck me last weekend when I was at a friend's fortieth. We were discussing age and I said to another friend next to me, 'you must be fifty soon, aren't you?' Those around me hooted with laughter and made out I'd made a terrible faux pas by asking such a question. Someone else nearby said that they were approaching fifty, 'but don't remind me'.

What I want to know is, what's the problem with getting old? Why do we think it's such a terrible thing, something to be fought against and not talked about in polite society? I'll be forty in a couple of years' time, and I can see the grey hairs and the wrinkles making their mark. So what should I do? Should I dye my hair too and start wearing make-up to fool myself and others as to how old I am? I don't think so! I want to fight against this society's obsession with defying age, and learn how to embrace it positively, as something that is beautiful and that is to be respected and admired.