Tag Archives: Getting Older

60–Old or 60-Young?

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This is NOT Mrs. Miller.

What do you think when someone speaks of being “90 years young”?

I’ve always heard that expression as a cute substitute for “old.” Since the expression rarely refers to someone younger than 50, it’s at once an admission of age and a determination not to be categorized.

On NPR’s August 9th Weekend Edition, in a story entitled “Remember: The Ball is Your Friend,” essayist and “literary activist” E. Ethelbert Miller tells about his 59-year-old wife’s decision to play basketball for the first time in her life. In passing, he mentions that the “challenge” he and his wife face is “being 60-young instead of 60-old.”

So I’m not the only one! Continue reading →

Ten Misunderstandings about the More Mature

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A couple of months ago I mentioned to a young man – who is in his late teens – that my 87-year-old mother has a Facebook account. His response startled me. It was something like “That’s just sick.”

This is how I interpreted his response: “I can’t believe I would enjoy anything an old person would enjoy. Facebook is for the young, so an old person on Facebook is just not age-appropriate.”

Misconceptions. I extrapolated that reaction into attitudes a lot of us may unwittingly hold, no matter how many years we have lived. As I consider the aging process and observe those who are decades older than me, I am becoming more aware of misconceptions about those we would call elderly. Continue reading →

Rewards of an Aging Mind

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Did you know that as you age, you are more likely to use both sides of your brain?

In an intriguing report in The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, Sarah Hampton cites recent research at Duke University, in which MRI’s and PET scans of the brains of people over 50 showed that when they perform tasks, they use both sides of the brain at the same time. The brains of younger adults tend to be more asymmetrical – one side is more dominant than the other.

This was good news to Dr. Gene Cohen, founding director of the Center on Aging, Health and Humanities at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who has been a gerontologist since his medical school days. His most recent book is entitled The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain. Continue reading →

Pop-up Proverb 5

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Pop-up Proverbs are sayings that catch my fancy as I go about my day. Some have surprising sources; all of them have made me stop and think – and maybe smile a little.

#5 – Aging

Grace: “Mother, there’s a splendid new book on avoiding old age. You ought to read it.”
Abbie Deal: “I’m only sixty-two, Grace, and I don’t see any signs of senility. You can’t avoid old age, but you don’t need to think about it.”

From A Lantern in Her Hand, page 221
by Bess Streeter Aldrich


Want to Age Well? Keep Moving!

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Infancy: Grabbing Independence

My son and daughter-in-law have produced a video of their baby girl’s attempts to crawl. She rocks back and forth, happy yet apprehensive, not knowing quite how to start. She tries, falls on her face, gets up and tries again, while her mother holds out her hands in encouragement. [Cute, isn’t she?]

Learning to Crawl

What if she had given up after the 15th or 20th or 30th time she tried? Would she be pulling herself up now, about to walk? Why has she kept on, when each stage is so difficult, sometimes taking weeks or months from when she first tried it? Continue reading →

Celebrate Aging

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Everyone wants to age, unless they have some kind of suicide wish. When you’re under ten years old, you call it growing up. When you’re a teenager you may say, “When I get older,” but you say it with hope, not dread.

So when does the dread start? At what age do we stop wanting to admit we’re aging? 20? 30?

Remember how when you were 12 you wanted to be 18 and when you were 18 you wanted to be 21? Is that the age when we stop wanting to be older?

In this age of emphasis on the kind of energy that only the very young can have, some people dread turning 30, because they see only a downhill slope after that.

But I believe it’s all in your attitude, which is why I’ve decided that 106 is the age to dread. By then I’m certain to be blind, deaf, toothless and no longer ambulatory. And that’s the year my oldest child will turn 80 years old and may not be able to take care of me any longer.

So go ahead. Try to talk about aging like a teenager would: With hope, with plans for the future. Why not? Because if you’re aging, it means you’re still alive.

Grab your life, shake it up, and drink it with enthusiasm.

Let’s talk about it. What age do you – or did you – dread the most? What are you planning for the future?