Over a decade ago I left the beach towns of Florida I had always called home. I packed up a station wagon and headed to the millennial’s promised land, Brooklyn. Before I left, a friend and mentor recommended that I read Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. This quote by the main character struck me, changed my […]
Are We Selling Convenience or Isolation?
We accept, without thinking much about it, that some housing will be set apart and restricted to people over the age of 55. Indeed, the entire senior living industry is founded on this deliberate policy of age segregation. We also know that the number of older Americans is large and growing larger every year. Everyone, […]
Who’s Going to Create a Better Narrative of Old Age in America?
Changing the culture is hard, and it involves struggle. That struggle doesn’t start in a shopping cart, whether online or at Walmart. It starts between our ears, with the uncomfortable task of confronting our own, largely unconscious, age bias.
A MAGICal Encounter
“Well, there is magic in the air!” My Lyft driver greeted me with enthusiasm. Her last ride had dropped off at the same terminal and door I was waiting at—a gig economy mini miracle. Little did she know MAGIC really was in the air for me. I had just landed from spending a week working […]
Can We Please Stop Calling It AGING!
In order to shed the shackles of the “Calamitous Cs” and not be sucked in by the declining negative rhetoric of aging, why not replace them with the three positive “Constructive Cs”? Especially if you’re serious about living a life of continuous incline.
The Wow Factor
There’s a strange pattern here. We’re surprised by young people who display what we consider to be the kind of sophistication and wisdom that we associate only with experience and age, as well as by elders who display the physical stamina, prowess, and productivity of people decades younger. It’s as if to be young means only to be strong and to be old means only to be wise.
It’s Time to Believe Older Adults, Too
Just as we are encouraged to believe those who report experiences of sexual harassment, so, too, should we believe older adults who report elder harassment in any of its forms. Ageism, too, is a spectrum of abuse. All of this is to say that harassment in any form, toward any person, and for any reason should not be justified or tolerated.
We Need an Age Friendly Revolution
A powerful way to counter divisive rhetoric and demagoguery coming out of Washington, D.C., is to do something unexpected — start an Age Friendly city revolution.
