“Old age is the most unexpected of all the things to happen to a man.” Leon Trotsky ‘Dairy in Exile 1937.’
And there you have it. You are enjoying endless middlesence when age unexpectedly taps you on the shoulder, “Hey, I’m waiting for you.” The reminder might be an arthritic twinge or a senior moment when memory fails you but it’s enough to start a train of thought. That train may travel a well- worn track about what it means to be old. You can all too readily arrive at a gloomy destination where you imagine yourself “Sans eyes, teeth, sans everything.”
But hang on a minute! that defining quote about the sixth age of man was written by Shakespeare in 1600 when the average life expectancy was 38. Fast forward to July 8 2015 when the news that Irish born Kathleen Snavely had passed away in America aged 113, that is three times the Shakespearean lifespan. Yes ,Mrs Snavely was the 16th oldest person in the world but today the rest of us can expect to live nearly twice as long as that at 1600 average. And thanks to modern medicine we are not likely to be sans very much although a few bits may have been replaced. The great majority of older folk are doing fine and yet we are still viewing age through that four hundred year’s old prism.
Unless you happen to be a gerontologist ageing isn’t something you want to know about, most of us are far more interested in staying young. It’s hardly surprising given the negative messages about old age. Look at the way the media deal with the issue of ageing populations, seniors are ‘bed blockers’ who take up space in hospitals, they are the grey burden who place an unfair load on tax payers. And when the retirement age is raised, as it has been in several countries, it’s not because the powers that be have realized that it’s nonsense to have an arbitrary age to stop working or that some vibrant 60 or 65 year olds who want to work have a great deal to contribute . No, it’s because they don’t want to bear the cost of pensions.
And the more negative sayings about old age have a way of sticking: take Hollywood’s Bette Davis whose “Old age ain’t no place for sissies,” which with its sideways kick at the nasty nature of age gets quoted ad nauseam. But who remembers the feisty star’s other quote,” I will not retire while I’ve still got my legs and my make- up. ” Nor she did, for she continued acting to almost the end of her 81years.
We live in an ageist era. And it’s hardly surprising that the negative attitudes about ageing have a way of influencing our view of ourselves as we grow older. Suppose though, that age was something to be celebrated? There would have to be a tsunami of change, oldies’ lib marches with Zimmer frame burning, consciousness -raising to make us realize that discrimination against older people has no more reason to exist that sexism or racism.
We want BOLD age not old age.
Marianne heron is a journalist, Life Coach and co-founder in Rewire don’t Retire pre-retirement courses. Contact info@rewiredontretire.ie
