Aging Isn't for Wimps: Keep Going Strong
Aging Isn't for Wimps: Keep Going Strong
Aging Isn't for Wimps: Keep Going Strong
Being young and invincible, I thought Mom complained too much. Now that I am older and wiser, I realize that she was right.
Think about it.
We have a long period of on-the-job-training for getting older. One would think that with all that experience behind us, we'd be better at it. One of the problems, though, is that someone keeps changing the working conditions.
Twenty years ago, I took an adult education course in computer programming at the local high school. As I told my husband, "It's getting so that if you don't know how to use computers, you're functionally illiterate."
Today, with my smattering of computer knowledge, I'm being besieged by PDA's, iPods, Smart phones, Facebook and Tweeter. Someone has changed the working conditions.
Some of us may still remember the halcyon days of the family doctor, the General Practitioner, who - if he (and they were mostly he's) didn't make house calls - at least he didn't charge you an arm and a leg for an office call.
Someone has changed the working conditions: how many of us have trouble getting in to see a doctor in the first place? And the cost of an office call is so high that we only go if it is absolutely necessary. Health insurance, which was supposed to make healthcare both more available and more affordable, has spiraled out of control. Many of us can't even afford health insurance.
No, aging isn't for wimps. But the alternative isn't all that great, either. Harvard professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot in her book, The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50 I says:
"We must develop a compelling vision of later life: one that does not assume a trajectory of decline after fifty, but one that recognizes it as a time of change, growth and new learning, a time when our courage gives us hope."
As I think about all this, it seems to me that this is the challenge that many of us Baby Boomers face: we've worked hard all our lives and it is so tempting to rest on our laurels and become set in our ways.
The image of the stodgy old curmudgeon or the acerbic old biddy come to mind. I suspect that that is how many young people think of us - we're so far over the hill that....
Maybe we're so far over the hill that we've started up the other side! We are the ones who are changing our own working conditions. We're not settling in our ways and we're not settling for the same old same old. We're looking forward to twenty or thirty more good years of life and we are determined to make it count for something.
It has been said that the past is over and done, that the future may never come, and that all we really have is today. That was never more true in my life than right now and I suspect that the same is true for you. Let's make right now the best years of our lives.
Sara Dillinger is an Elder in the United Methodist Church, currently on leave of absence. You may check out her website at:
http://www.for-boomers.com
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