Ageing sucks! There, I’ve said it, succinctly; it’s perfect, a complete work of great literary merit.

What use the Wisdom of Solomon when you no longer have the leg speed of Usain Bolt, the ball skills of Andrew MacLeod or the charisma of Kevin Rudd? It starts in our forties, the lengthening of the brow as the hairline gradually recedes, invading ear canals and nasal passages; great forests of coarse, unwanted tresses reaching out across shoulders and rolling down like tumbleweed out-back. I can cope with all of this, the failing eyesight and hearing, joint and back pain, the gentle spreading of the girth but now, she’s started snoring as well!

I have recently come to the conclusion that age related vision and hearing loss is an in-built evolutionary mechanism designed to protect long term relationships.

However, one thing we should not tolerate, at any age, is intolerance itself. Intolerance reflects a lack of courage and it would seem the older we get the less tolerant we become. As we age, we tire and, it would appear, we loose the courage of our convictions, the ability to take up the fight for the just cause, to stand up and make a difference, to debate and even, to admit when we are wrong. We just become grumpy old persons, intolerant of anyone and anything that does not accord with our view of the world.

Penguin Group Australia recently announced that it was reprinting 7000 Pasta Bible cookbooks because of a recipe that included "salt and freshly ground black people". Robert Sessions, the head of publishing, acknowledged that the proof reader should have identified the "silly mistake" and magnanimously agreed to replace the book for any buyer "small minded enough" to complain! My goodness, me thinks Bob is an angry elf!

Robert Sessions has been a book publisher in Australia for over 40 years and so he qualifies as an ageing brilliantine stick insect just like me, and the authors he has published over that time reads like a who’s who of Australian literati glitterati; Thomas Keneally, Ruth Park, George Turner, Peter Mathers, Phillip Adams, Graeme Base, Geoffrey Blainey, Manning Clark, Bryce Courtenay, Morris Gleitzman, Sonya Hartnett, Donald Horne, Paul Jennings, Elizabeth Jolley and Tim Winton, to name but a few. From the hands of these authors have come some of the great seminal works on Australia, her history and her people, which has included treatise of the terrible treatment of her indigenous people at the hands of her colonial invaders.

Unlike Kevin, Bob doesn’t want to say he’s sorry, admit that his response to his company’s error was insensitive and intolerant, although, and given the company he keeps, he really should know better. Yet, just like Bob, the Prime Minister last week demonstrated on the ABC’s 7.30 Report that he is also not immune to the occasional intolerant outburst. Faced with persistent questioning about his self declared "greatest moral challenge of our time" statement, the Prime Minister reacted angrily to suggestions he "squibbed" on climate change by shelving the ETS. It was enough to have Sir Humphrey Appleby, (who, whenever he thought his minister was about to make a big error would arch one eyebrow and say, "that would be a courageous decision, minister"), turning in his grave! So, what was Kevin’s error of judgment, the back flip or the outburst?

While the physical effects of the ageing process can not be avoided, it takes courage to maintain a tolerant disposition throughout one’s life. In the end, it is courage, according to American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, which is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.

Gary Hatwell Executive Chairman