Geriatrics are having a new lease on life, it seems. Even grey beards, a mark of advanced age, have become de rigueur, fashionable. The Bellamy Brothers (remember them?) will soon be in town. So will the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens - before he discovered Islam and became Yusuf Islam. He will be packaged this time simply as Yusuf/Cat Stevens. He is, as we say in these parts, a bit deurmekaar.
With shaggy beards and voices that are beginning to lose their timbre, the old codgers are still harping on about music that takes us back to days yonder. We like going back in time.
The past always gets us going.
Which brings me to the matter of the flag, the old flag or the apartheid flag. That old dilapidated piece of cloth is still sowing dissension in the ranks.
It reared its ugly head again this week after years of hibernation. The fraying in society is unfortunately sending people scurrying back into their trenches.
The protesting farmers this week didn't do their cause any favours by displaying the old South African flag. The controversy overshadowed the message they were seeking to convey. An idiot could have seen that coming.
There is also the question of whether white farmers are a special breed who require special protection. That's a debate for another day.
The appearance of the flag understandably unleashed a torrent of criticism from all and sundry, with the ANC stoking the fires with some alacrity.
Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was enthusiastically applauded in parliament when he lashed out at the display of the flags at the rally.
It's as if, of all the problems confronting this nation - the crime, corruption, looting, a president in hock to gangsters - a piece of cloth posed the biggest threat.
The outrage was a bit overdone, methinks. For a government facing a slew of scandals, the flag controversy was a welcome diversion. The farmers came across as racist bigots. They damaged their own cause.
But aren't we being a bit too precious? Are our sensibilities so vulnerable that they need special protection from a piece of cloth? By making a song and dance of it, we're giving power to a symbol that is on the wane, if not totally forgotten.
A few years ago, Orania was seen by some as Afrikanerdom's ultimate nirvana. But the concept, the idea or its very existence, was a complete antithesis of the new and democratic society. An island of bigotry that was patently an affront to those who had fought for a fairer society, but Nelson Mandela didn't fret or fume; he crossed the border, so to speak, to take tea with an ailing Betsie Verwoerd.
It was a meeting of two contrasting worlds and there was no doubt which one looked assured, confident and on the rise.
And since then the good burghers of Orania have been left alone to wallow in their nothingness. Sometimes some things are not worth wasting one's breath on.
Some are calling for the flag to be banned, which would not only be an extreme measure, but also an act or sentiment which ironically belongs in a world represented by the very flag they condemn.
In other words, like the flag itself, those calling for its banning have a mindset that belongs in the past. The new South Africa is not, or should not be, about bannings.
We're justifiably proud of our freedom and the manner in which it was achieved.
But some of us still fail to understand, or are ignorant of the very idea of freedom. We want it for ourselves but not for others. We also regard it as our right to tell other people how to live their lives.
Don't stress yourself over something that has no material impact on your life. The old flag is not even a little stone in your shoe
But apart from the privilege to exercise one's rights, freedom's other tough centre is tolerance. Without tolerance, freedom becomes nothing but a dictatorship by whoever happens to wield power.
And you don't tolerate the things that you like, just as you don't often negotiate with friends or those who agree with you.
It is often the things that aggrieve you, that give you heartache, that you have to tolerate. Freedom, like life itself, is often about compromise.
When you're free, you don't get to eat the whole cake; you share it - with friend and foe.
Don't stress yourself over something that has no material impact on your life. The old flag is not even a little stone in your shoe.
But what we should have made a noise about is the barricading of roads and freeways (not free any more) which inconvenienced innocent members of the public going about their business.
That is totally unacceptable. But the genie is already out of the bottle on that one.
The government has been "too understanding" when it comes to violent demonstrations.
Destroying and burning property and generally making life hell for the public have become the norm.
And the cops - leaderless and confused - are too terrified of causing another bloodbath. The Marikana effect.
The farmers have a case, and they're right to call the government to account. Where they err is in demanding special treatment or attention. Crime affects us all and it should not be something that divides us.
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