Daily Excerpt: Creative Aging (Vassiliadis and Romer) - Do we have to grow old?

  

Excerpt from Creative Aging (Vassiliadis & Romer) -

INTRODUCTION

Do We Have to Grow Old?

 

“To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom and one of the most difficult chapters in the great art of living.”

—Henri Frederic Amiel, Philosopher

 

Time marches forward whether we like it or not. From the day we emerge on our birthdate with baby-soft skin, tiny toes and fingers, and a world of possibilities ahead, we begin to age. Even as our lungs fill with precious gulps of air and we cry out to tell the world we’ve arrived, time moves ahead. Aging is inevitable. But--do we have to grow old as we age?

 

As Baby Boomers, we have an imposing heritage. Many of us, in our 20s or younger, pursued the absorbing occupation of self-discovery. Books such as The Road Less Traveled, along with the mystical music of The Beatles and others, opened the imaginations of Baby Boomers across the country. Could there be something else besides the prescribed roles of businessman and housewife or even businessman and supportive partner? Fueled in some cases, but not all, with a wide selection of mind-expanding drugs, Boomers sought to discover the meaning of life in a way few previous generations had done: they experimented on themselves. And through a variety of creative activities such as dancing to the beat of Native American drums, shooting video of themselves partaking in everything from baking bread to making love, chanting, mountain climbing, and cross-country traveling, Boomers began to see themselves in a new way. No longer were they content to watch TV; they wanted to make TV and show it in storefront cafes to people in their communities. No longer would they settle for buying tickets for a dance performance; they wanted to create the performance themselves and be the star performers if possible.

 

Forty years later, Baby Boomers looking at retirement are not content to stay home and play with the grandchildren, much as they love them. Having been accustomed to creating a life of self-discovery for themselves in their younger days, Boomers, now unencumbered with family or full-time jobs, have decided to go forward and establish a new type of retirement. This retirement has little to do with babysitting grandchildren or playing bingo although these activities are not excluded. No, what Boomers seem to want in their golden years is the same type of experience sought in their youth: a quest for growth, discovery, and mind-expanding activity. Why not? If we’re going to live until 90 (many of us will), we’d better have some pretty fascinating stuff to occupy our brains for the next 30 years.

 

The average life expectancy in the United States is inching closer to the 80-year mark, according to the Census Bureau, which shows that by 2020 the combined total life expectancy for both men and women will be 79.5 years. Looking further out, statistics show that by year 2050, the United States life expectancy average will be almost 84 years of age. In other countries of the world, life expectancy rates advance even more: in developed countries such as Japan, Norway and Australia, projections from the United Nations Population Division show that by 2050 life expectancies range upward from 85 years in Norway, to around 86 in Australia, up to almost 88 in Japan.

 

These trends dramatically illustrate that we are destined to be surrounded by older people. So, the question becomes, what kind of life will we have as we get older? Equally important, what effect will the choices we make now have on our bodies and minds in our later years? How much of aging is biological, and how much is something else that we can control such as making good lifestyle choices that can add years to our outlook as we age? Is it possible to stop time in its tracks, maybe even reverse the trend?

 

Dr. Michael F. Roizen, who along with Charlie Silver developed the Real Age health and wellness assessment program, has become one of the modern health gurus. The system uses a checklist of more than 100 factors that have a plus or minus effect on the final output—our biological age versus our chronological age. Even though our chronological, or actual age, is a set number of years, our biological age can be determined by a variety of factors that illustrate whether our bodies are in better or worse condition than others at the same chronological age (Roizen, 1999).

 

For example, if you have smoked more than 20 packs of cigarettes a year for several years, that adds three years to your biological age. Conversely, if you stay socially connected by getting together with groups, friends or relatives more than six times each month, you can subtract a year and a half. The Real Age program shows how making positive lifestyle changes offers you control over your quality of life as you age. Millions of people have taken the test, as shown on television programs such as Oprah and Dr. Oz, with the results revealing some startling outcomes.

 

If our role models for aging were parents who did nothing but watch TV or play cards on the weekend for recreation, we may have to alter our concepts of aging. We may need to jump in and engage in some risk-taking activities just as we did in our 20s. We may need to shut the door on a negative portrait of ourselves as senior citizens and embrace an image that’s more exciting, more thought provoking, and more physically active.

 

But, hey, we’re Baby Boomers. We can do anything, right?

 

- Cheryl Vassiliadis and Joanna Romer

 

USA Best Books Awards finalist

 For more posts about Cheryl Vassiliadis and Joanna Romer and their book, click here.

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