Aging with Purpose: Telling Our Stories

In a youth-obsessed, “anti-aging” culture—where old people should be neither seen nor heard—it’s gratifying to learn of young people who actually want to hear from their elders.

Case in point: this recent article by Audra D. S. Burch in the New York Times: “A New Class of Voting Rights Activists Picks Up the Mantle in Mississippi.” *

Here’s the opening paragraph:

The first time Howard Kirschenbaum registered voters in Mississippi was during the summer of 1964, when he was arrested and thrown in jail. The second time was on Tuesday, after returning to the Southern state more than a half-century later to support a new generation of voting rights activists.

A couple of paragraphs later:

Four veteran volunteers of Freedom Summer, now in their 70s and mostly retired, returned to the state this week to join a nonpartisan youth group, Mississippi Votes, for a voter registration campaign called Up2Us. Young and old, two full generations apart, gathered at a Jackson church, in nearby neighborhoods, on the balcony of an Oxford bookstore to talk about the perils and stakes of voter activism, then and now.

And here’s the part that stands out for me:

“There is a power that transcends our ages,” said Arekia Bennett, 25, executive director of Mississippi Votes, which has 250 volunteers and chapters on nine different college campuses across the state. “We want to dive deep into the veteran stories and learn the lessons of that summer so we can shift the narrative, make our own changes in Mississippi.”

Many of my adult writing clients want to share their life stories with their children, grandchildren, and generations to follow. Whether in a book, a short collection of letters and diary entries, or in oral interviews, they hope to, in part, pass on lessons learned.

And many of those lessons have to do not only with their personal history—where they went to school, what kind of work they did, who they married—but also with how that history was joined to the time, place, and culture within which they lived.

The NYT piece describes a time, place and culture in 1964 having to do with voting rights in the south. The stories Ms. Bennett and her colleagues want to “dive deep into” are those of activists who lived that history. They want to learn from their elders so they can make their own present-day contribution, one that will help them “shift the narrative.”

In other words, they want to learn from history, so as not to repeat it.

(With thanks to George Santayana https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Santayana)

*https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/25/us/freedom-summer-mississippi-votes.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fus&action=click&contentCollection=us&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=20&pgtype=sectionfront

The Four FEBS of Aging Well

OK, truth is there are more than four, but these—the FEBS—are especially important. Because as we’ve often heard, when you have your health, you have everything.

Or as I would amend it: staying physically healthy as we age, and for as long as we can, gives us more opportunities to age well in other ways.

The four FEBS of good physical health, reinforced in my endless reading for Book the Second, are:

--Flexibility

--Endurance

--Balance

--Strength

No surprises there, eh? And while a lifetime of walking, biking, climbing stairs, stretching, and some intermittent attempts at yoga have served me pretty well, I am—and always have been—an accident waiting to happen. All my life, I have been clumsy; in fact, my parents used to say that I could walk into an empty room and trip.

Unfortunately, I have lived up to their expectations, not only tripping and often falling, but getting into bike accidents; knocking stuff over, usually breakable; and dropping things.

I seem to have survived the worst of it, often with the help of emergency rooms and doctor visits (the mild concussion and fractured ribs), but most often with ice packs, heating pads, pain patches, massage, and OTC anti-inflammatories.

And though I may be clumsy, I ain’t stupid. As my 75^th is due to arrive in a mere six weeks, I’m thinking it might be time to develop a regular practice of something—anything—that will improve my own personal FEBS. Especially so that next year, I can happily greet and celebrate my 76^th. 

To get started, I’m joining a Tai Chi class this week, a decision inspired by Jane Brody’s recent article in the New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/10/well/move/using-tai-chi-to-build-strength.html?action=click&contentCollection=well&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront

Surviving My Staycation

I don’t idle well.

Yes, I enjoyed dinners out with friends and catching up with former neighbors at the annual block party. Yes, it was fun hanging out with regulars at my local taverns, watching the hometown teams battle their way into the World Series. (Or not. Maybe next year, White Sox?)

And way out there fun was going to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, and only for the second time in my long life. Not only was it a bit of a nail biter going into overtime, but also the tickets were a gift, donated by my high school friend’s generous son. Thank you, again, Andy, for your thoughtfulness.

But a person can have only so much fun—at least this person—especially when it’s crammed into three long weeks.

So to break the Fun Tedium, I spent most of my staycation in the library, where, if it were possible, I’d simply live.

But I wasn’t just wandering aimlessly through the stacks; I was busy “turning over” those sections where books on aging were concentrated. Because, as Samuel Johnson once observed:  'The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man [sic] will turn over half a library to make one book.'

I am now knee deep in reading as I begin Book #2. Though somewhat related to Book #1, this one will have a much broader focus: exploring the currently hot topic of aging. (Hot? Just wait till you see my book’s bibliography.)

Part of my focus will be on the importance of purpose and creativity—however we indulge those most human impulses--as we make our way beyond 50 and onto the great beyond.

And so now the real fun begins.