Choosing What to Care About

There are plenty of things to be pissed about these days. As a matter of fact, there are too many things to be pissed about. I’m pissed about how many things I am pissed about. To the point that I just don’t care about being pissed any more.

What do I care about?  Surprisingly, the list is actually quite short. I care about my cats, I care about my friends, and I care about my community. I care about helping people feel better about themselves and finding ways to ease some of the suffering. That’s it.

Eight Years of Blogs

Each week since 2017 I have shared my ideas, opinions, insights, and observations on what it means to be growing old. That’s a lot of words.

When I re-read some of my blogs, I find myself chuckling at just how bold and brazen some of my pronouncements were. There are themes that I have touched on over and over again – ageism, the lack of sufficient housing, loss, adjustment – as well as the gifts that aging has brought me. The temerity of it all!

My Role as Explorer and Explainer

Through all these words, I have come to realize that I have a gift for taking topics that may be complex and finding ways to make them accessible. I can look at difficult issues like death, dying, and grief and offer both clinical and heartfelt insights into what is, after all, a universal experience.

I am both an explorer and an explainer. I am willing to track down information that too many folks should be aware of, but in our current world of short attention spans and distractibility, don’t have the time or inclination to consume.

Turns out, I love doing this kind of thing.

Reaching Tipping Points

Turns out it takes people a while to wake to the wonderful world of aging! I am both excited and a bit piqued that it has taken this long for folks to see what I have been talking about all these years. But then again, I am an impatient sort.

Healthcare is finally taking a look at its own ageist beliefs about getting old, engaging in extraordinary research on what actually happens to an aging body. They are producing a generation of newly minted professionals (“youngsters”) who need skilled translators to help them close the gap between their book-learning about aging and the lived experience of the people they’re caring for. There is a role for us here.

Education is realizing that learning has an enormous audience in older people who are craving stimulation and growth long after the diplomas have been awarded. There is a role for us here.

Technology is finding a market of savvy older consumers who can afford to purchase gadgets designed to keep folks connected to more than an emergency response network. This, in turn, is changing how living environments are designed, communications are organized, and even cars are operated. There is a role for us here.

And healthy, engaged, politically active older adults are taking point in addressing the intolerable decline of democracy — even while we’re being held responsible for allowing it to happen. And we should be. Adapting our way of living to a world we’ve taken for granted requires something that has yet to be quantified: the lived experience of having gone through tremendous social upheaval, war, and change, and come out the other side. Yes, there is a role for us here.

Updating Terms and Conditions

As members of the Boomer generation die off, we recognize our mortality. More and more of us take note of the memories – the good times, the idealism, our faults and failings.

As our lifespan increases, we are shedding our fear of aging and finding ways to fill the gaps not with parking ourselves in nursing homes and waiting to die, but in creating co-housing communities, standing for causes, and creating roadmaps for younger generations to follow. I hope we can help them avoid some of the pot holes and dead ends we have found ourselves mired in.

The fine print here is that while many of us have these experiences, too many of us don’t have the language or capacity to share what we have been through in a way that can influence the necessary changes to how we age.

But that is changing. More of us are finding each other. It’s an older version of Woodstock. We are coming together in radical, but familiar ways.

Trouble Ahead

Back in the 1920s, before the Crash, there was a generation of post-war Americans who were lost. Women were still unable to vote. Young men came back from the trenches in France feeling bitter about the slaughter. Countries found themselves shifting in class, caste, and political movements.  

All of these stirrings, along with the climate catastrophe that was the Dust Bowl, culminated in the Great Crash of 1929. The economy of the United States, built on bluster and unregulated greedy governance, fell apart.

We are mirroring that decade with frightening parallels. The difference, though, is we know how that turned out.

The Phoenix Rises

The determinants of change are well-known: poverty, lack of opportunity, racism, exclusionary policies, and abuse of power and authority. When these reach a tipping point, change happens. History teaches us that there are many who will be sacrificed when change occurs. And change will occur.

What is different for our times is that there are more of us who know better. More of us have lived long enough to say, “Wait a minute!  We don’t all have to go through this again!”  More of us are in a position to influence decisions being made.

What Is Our Legacy Going to Be?

I started this blog talking about being pissed off. That is from the point of view of an observer, not an active participant. As an aging adult in the 21^st Century, I have an opportunity to continue to participate instead of quietly moving to the sidelines.

My legacy will come in how I share my knowledge, skill, and experiences in service of those who are now ascending to positions of power. I have been here before. I know the way out.