An interesting piece in today's 'Mail by journalist Tanya Gold , 34 , who spent a day out and about in London prosthetically made up to resemble a 90 year old woman .
She found people to be patronising , oblivious , rude or amused when she tried to provoke reactions such as by going into an hmv store and asking to be shown 'whatever music is at the top of the charts now' .
Nothing  wrong with that but , you have to admit , that would be most unusual and unexpected , though the sales assistant should not have laughed at her .
The only person who approached her was a homeless man asking for money .
She says that " perhaps the cruellest thing is the feeling of sexlessness " .
But do 90 year olds really want to be considered sexy ? -
Having never been 90 I can't say .
She tried speaking to men , waggling her stick and saying " What a handsome young man you are , son " . They appeared  horrified .
I think I'd just laugh .
Her concluding thoughts are :
" When the Londoners see my face , they see their future . One day they   will be ancient and hobbling and dependent . I am an ugly advertisement for their own mortality , and they hate it .
Just as we instinctively care for young children , we instinctively recoil from the old , who are no longer important to the survival of our species .
The way we treat the very old , it seems to me . . is a process of disengagement .. of letting them walk outside the tent to die .
Once you have dehumanised a person , you can just let them die . And I think I am just as gulity as all the people who have treated me with such disdain as an old woman . . . "
Is it generally as bad as that ?
Are most of us really so coldhearted that we'd rather that ' the old ' just died , or otherwise stayed at home , not showing their faces ?
I think that some of the reactions to her 90 year old character were more out of embarrassment and surprise , and being unused to dealing with an elderly person in such scenario's .
Some people are just rude , uncommunicative ,  uncaring to most , or all who  they encounter .
But yes , it generally does seem to come more naturally to  feel loving , protecting , nurturing towards a child than to a frail elderly person .
And we  tend to , unconsciously , mentally file our fellow humans into boxes , and feel uncomfortable when their behaviour  contradicts what we expect of them .
She also said : " The distaste and detachment are'nt personal . How can it be when it is universal ? It's simply genetic . . . "
But is it universal ?
Elderly people are generally much more loved and revered , and cared for by their families in certain other countries than they are here .
Some elderly folk may appreciate being called 'dear' and suchlike , others may find it  patronising .
Some  women will appreciate men offering them their seats on public transport , others will find it insulting .
There are important issues around the welfare of our elderly population , but categorising ' the elderly ' as a homogenous group is unhelpful because , some have plenty of  money , some struggle to pay their bills , some have good health , some do'nt , some see a lot of their family , some do'nt , some have a circle of friends , etc . . .
And it's not unknown for some of  our elder citizens to themselves be selfish and rude .
In the end , everyone who we encounter , unless there's some obvious reason otherwise deserves our trying  our best  under the circumstances to  treat them with  courtesy and consideration whether we like the look of them or not  ,  and some of us should try harder but  , none of us are perfect and , so long as we mean well . . .