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In a 03/17/15 Washington Post article, lawyer/writer/communications consultant Amy Gutman spotlights the sorry fact that while Americans are living longer than ever, they're finding themselves in a culture that shortlists expectations of what they can should must contribute.
Ms. Gutman has a paragraph I'd love to have everyone over 45 - along with their families, loved ones, & friends - print out:
And aging isn’t something that begins only as we prepare to depart this world. It begins at the beginning, the moment we are born. Adolescence, adulthood, mid-life—all are points of transition, each one involving gains and losses. Aging is a lifelong process, and the experience of being an “older adult” is one that, for most of us, is likely to last decades.
Why 45? Because the longer we live, the more the age we're considered "senior" citizens keeps dipping lower & lower. Twenty years ago, you had to be 65 to get a "senior" deal - in many places now, it's fifty. 50!
As Ms. Gutman points out, the world around us is filled with needs crying out for attention. Instead of being relegated to lowly expectations & wheel chairs, we need to put the experience & know-how of older Americans to work. Instead of looking backward with regret & forward with trepidation, let's get older Americans working in support of the newest generation & helping those in the one ahead.
She's talking generativity, which is what March's Leading to Well-Being Conference & last month's NCCA Conference were all about. GENERATIVITY. "Making your mark" on the world, through caring for others, creating things and accomplishing things that make the world a better place. Yeah, baby - that's what it's all about!
With the right attitude, anything is possible! Did YOU know that the RP in AARP no longer stands for Retired Persons? Nope - now it stands (in so many ways!) for Real Possibilities!
Its Life Reimagined initiative is all about helping 3rd Act Americans discover - everything. Or, as the site describes it - The life you’ve dreamed of having is actually very possible. To make it real doesn’t require major tasks or grand gestures. It’s about making small and simple steps to help you figure out what you really want, and then starting to make that happen.
It made me feel pretty good when the two books she gave special nods to were Ai-Jen Poo's The Age of Dignity and Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, two authors I've spotlighted. (Shocked! Appalled! Dismayed! Realize I've praised Atul, but can't find a word about his book, which I totally devoured & immediately recommended to all my FB friends, whatever their age!)
A raucously loud & boisterous BRAVO! to Amy (forget that Ms. Gutman stuff - like Ai-Jen & Atul, she's earned friend status) for her statement that end-of-life issues are crucial, but are NOT synonymous with aging!!
As AMY points out, "Yes, we need to grapple with the
realities of end-of-life care, to give thought to what it means to die a
good death in a youth-obsessed culture and how we can make that the
norm rather than the exception. But we also need to write a new chapter
in the book of aging: to figure out how to make the most of what
Stanford’s Carstensen calls our 'super-sized lives.' ”
Do you have any idea how THRILLING it is for me to have someone as gifted smart EFFECTIVE as Amy Gutman, self-proclaimed "wrangler of words," writing about issues that fill me with the light of purpose & the joy of my True North calling??!! So beyond bliss!
Amy points out that there are few guideposts for us boomers forging ahead, virtually no templates for us to follow as we seek ways to live fulfilling productive rewarding lives, from that long ago first breath to our last. That's not to be feared. It just means we get to cut out our own path. Which is what we boomers have done over the past almost 70 years! Just keep moving - and keep our attention on aging & life, not aging & anything less!
Why a picture of the Queen?
Can YOU think of anyone who
more embodies aging & living than
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, Elizabeth II ?!
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