Late
Adulthood is the culmination of all previous ages, from Infant & Toddler to
Young & Middle Adulthood, with all the comes in between.
Yet, what should be the apex, the highest
point, is too often experienced as the opposite, only worst. A baby can’t do anything for itself, a
toddler has limited independence, a preschooler & even adolescent still
needs support & caring from others.
But they look forward to gaining full personal freedom.
Folks at Late Adulthood – even at the tag end
of Middle Adulthood – see increasing dependency stretching in front of them,
out to a final edge of their horizon.
Even
the most vibrant, active among the “young-old” have an always dangling sword
over their head – one fall, one hospitalization & their freedom could be
limited, reduced, even disappear. If
Young Adulthood is hallmarked by achieving & Middle Adulthood by
accumulating, Late Adulthood is generally characterized by… what?
Fear of what might come? Fear of
what is already here? Fear of worse to
come? Too often, all three seem the
case.
Which
leads me to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
If I learned about the pyramid in Psych 101, had forgotten about it
until teaching Health to at-risk high school kids (you called their parole
officers, not their parents). It was an
eye opener – not the chart, the students.
It
is one thing to teach the Hierarchy of Needs to a class of students in the
somewhat preppy high school I attended, filled with students who range from
families that are just getting by to the mega wealthy. There might have been a range of problems
they faced in their lives, with their family, but they all had a roof over
their heads, food on the table & most at least appeared to be in stable
families with more or less healthy relationships.
That
wasn’t true for my at-risk students. I
had a fifteen year old student with a three year old child, several who’d been
thrown out by parents, all of whom had lost at least one friend or relative to
a stabbing or shooting. I’ve sat in my
classroom while a fight was being calmed out in the hallway & a knot of
girls hunkered down in a corner, contraband cell phones miraculously appearing
from who knows where on their bodies, calling friends to lay an ambush to jump
whoever dared mess with one of their cohort.
The school was a fifteen minute drive from the my old school &
worlds apart.
How
many of my students had the basic, primary level of their needs – healthy food,
clean water, shelter, warmth – met? How
many were even aware that the second level – security, stability, freedom from
fear – were even possible? Belong,
Self-Esteem, Self-Actualization - - those are non-starters if Physiological
& Safety needs aren’t met.
Got
to thinking about that this morning, triggered by a passage in Virus of the Mind. Richard Brodie notes, “Psychologists &
psychiatrists such as Abraham Maslow & Viktor Frankl have noticed that when
people are willing or forced to stopped worrying about their own survival and immediate
crises, they have another set of drive, referred to alternatively as ‘higher
purpose,’calling,’ or ‘self-actualization.’”
I
first read Virus of the Mind back in 2009, over ten years after it was
published. I’ve looked over it at least
twice since that first read. Yet, it
never hit me to ponder how Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs matches up against needs
of folks in Late Adulthood. Not
surprising - six years ago, all my Late Adulthood family, friends &
pleasant acquaintances seemed to have their Physiological & Safety needs
fairly well met.
In
2015, am aware that having our first level met - healthy food, clean water,
shelter, physical comfort – is no guarantee our second is, or even can be. Which poses a problem with helping Late
Adulthood friends recognize, value & pursue their late-in-life
purpose.
When they have the
presence of mind to see beyond the day-to-day hassles of life, people hunger
deeply to fulfill whatever is their own personal life purpose. Page 217
How
many of my Late Adulthood friends – especially one in the upper ranges or ones
who’ve experienced a fall or serious hospitalization – are ever fully free to
see beyond day-to-day worries? What can be
done to help people in Late Adulthood – or anyone whose situation leaves them
in chronic worry about their safety & security – get past this barrier to
reach up to the next levels – Belonging, Self-Esteem, Self-Actualization?
Well worth – and going to get – a long
ponder.
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