Aging

It has been a little more than nine months since my MEA experience with my fabulous cohort, SEAN. Like a healthy pregnancy, I’m giving birth to some new thoughts. In my cohort, there were three of us over 70 years old. I could have been the mother of the rest.

British philosopher Bertrand Russell wore many hats: mathematician, historian, writer, essayist, social critic, political activist, and Nobel laureate. He wrote this piece of prose at age 81, 16 years before he passed away. I think you’ll find his thoughts on death illuminating. Maybe we ought to talk about death more often.

My parents were self-described Luddites. The last rotary phone in America lived at our house; when the device gave up the ghost, they purchased a push-button phone but kept the rotary service, so as you punched in a telephone number, you'd hear each digit being dutifully dialed.

My parents were self-described Luddites. The last rotary phone in America lived at our house; when the device gave up the ghost, they purchased a push-button phone but kept the rotary service, so as you punched in a telephone number, you'd hear each digit being dutifully dialed.

If you haven’t seen Ashton Applewhite’s TED talk, I highly recommend it. But, if you want to understand her heartbeat and why she sees the time is right for an anti-ageism movement, you ought to read this book. Originally self-published, it became a hit and has led her to a worldwide speaking tour.

The second installment of our weekly book club comes from the section of the MEA Library called “What Does It Mean to Become an Elder?” and highlights San Francisco gerontologist Louise Aronson and her bestselling book, “Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life.”

Could our mundane lives be compared to the heroic caterpillar-to-butterfly-journey? What if, after childhood, we imagined—as many sociologists now do—the stage of life from age 15-25 as an “Emerging Adult”?

Just when I got comfortable in my skin, it started to sag. But that’s okay. I take life less seriously today than I did ten years ago. The Latin root of the word “serious” means weighty and grave. But even though my weight is 15 pounds heavier than it was in 2010, and I’m closer to my grave, I don’t feel more serious.

Having wandered around the field of gerontology for almost a half century, I’ve continually found myself banging into other people’s attitudes as to whether they think aging is a good or bad thing. Is it something to be embraced or conquered? Should we be “pro-aging” or “anti-aging?”

Recently, I had an exquisite Baja sunset conversation. The sky was ablaze with every color of the rainbow. Silhouetted whales were breaching. My friend and I stumbled through a conversation. I say stumbled because we were talking about things we forget.