Shakespeare does n't mention it anywhere in "The Seven Ages of Man" - the age my friends and are find ourselves in now: that of ageing parents, of job worries, of relationship anxieties, of sudden illness, of increasingly difficult moments with children.

It's a deeply uncomfortable stage in life; as a participant, it goes without saying; and if honesty is still a worthy currency, then it's bloody troubling as a nervous spectator, literally fingering the worry beads, wondering when...if...

The only reference I can pluck out of Shakespeare's evocative prose poem that fits this stage we're all navigating through is that it is a "...strange eventful history...". It does worry me.