A Guardian columnist has described the moment a van driver insulted her while she was cycling, telling her she was “too old to be that stupid.” Zoe Williams, writing for the Guardian, said the remark came as she performed what she described as an ordinary and legal cycling manoeuvre.
A Devastating Critique
Williams said she was 10 minutes down the road before she examined the mechanics of the insult. She had previously assumed that, wearing a bike helmet, she was invisible on the road, thinking of herself as “a ninja or a sprite, moving like smoke through traffic.” The incident, however, suggested she was perfectly visible and that other vehicles were choosing not to notice when she wanted to turn right.
When she described the abuse to a friend, he responded: “Darling, you’re not old enough to be this stupid.” She then told her 17-year-old son, who now uses the remark as a yardstick whenever she does something stupid, applying it to situations such as missing a train or failing to unplug a dishwasher.
Age and Wisdom
Williams reflected on whether there is a tech inversion by which one can be too young to be that stupid, but no age is too old. She concluded that, notwithstanding this, people should still go through life getting better at it. “There is no misstep in the world for which 53 is not too old,” she wrote.
Her final advice: when someone says a mean thing and you don’t want it to stick, try not telling anyone. Williams is a Guardian columnist.
