I still have to look up the dictionary. The latest consult was prompted by a word in one of T. S. Eliot’s poems (‘East Coker’) – ‘hebetude’. It was sited in a stanza about things to look forward to in old age. As I thumbed to the ‘H’s’, I was sure it was going to say something positive, like steadiness, maturity, balance. I was not ready for what I found. The word means to be dull, sluggish and mentally lethargic. Great! Just great.

Eliot may have struck a depressing nerve, but he’s not wholly wrong. Moses in his great poem-psalm spoke with real lament about his wilderness years: ‘All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan’. And while Moses wrote mainly about the wasted years in the desert, there is a sense that this is the general human experience for all of us as we approach the end.

But old T. S. tells only half the story. Hebetude is one sign on the road. There is another. Beatitude. That blessing of knowing God and enjoying his company. The word does not appear exactly in Psalm 92, but it does in concept. In speaking of the righteous: ‘They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The LORD is upright”.’ So ‘Moan Ahead’? To some degree, yes. It comes with declining years. But also this road sign to those who walk by faith: ‘Fresh Fruit Around The Corner’.