October 15, 2019 —By Frances Kolarek —
You are old? Had you expected to be old? Since we have no choice, we must, in Twelfth Step verbiage, accept the things we cannot change.
We in our 90s had never expected to see the 21st century dawn — yet here we are, 14 or 15 years later, making dates for dinner, getting haircuts, if we are lucky and warring with technology.
Baby boomers, on the other hand, stand at the brink of the 70s in terror, having grown up at a time when Betty Friedan was writing Fountain of Age, in which she regrets that the old are rendered invisible by the media, and young writers were portraying age as shameful, painful, dreadful and to be avoided at all costs. At least it wasn’t contagious.
Changes are coming thick and fast. Oliver Sacks’ essay “The Joy of Old Age. (No Kidding.),” appeared in The New York Times on his 80th birthday. The famous neurologist and author affirms that age holds abundant pleasures and he looks forward to many more years in which to “love and work.”
Take heart, Boomers! We are making progress. We are reconciling ourselves — no, we are accepting with pleasure — an invitation to live long, productively, and happily. Yes, we old are a happy bunch. With a note of surprise, a Gallup poll has affirmed the fact.
Welcome to our happy midst, Baby Boomers.