Last night, for my monthly Virtual Senior Center class for Selfhelp Community Services, I reviewed the book, The End of Old Age by Dr. Marc E. Agronin. The basic message: aging brings strength. It isn’t only about decline and health challenges. Dr. Agronin suggested we start to change our image of old age by taking note of others who are living, working, playing and serving vital roles in their communities. (Don’t know where to find them? Start at Growing Bolder.)
We say we want to live a long life, yet we see old age as our enemy. “We want to get there, but we live in fear of what it will entail.” Dr. Agronin asks an interesting question: if we were able to return to life at age 21, would we do it? Although we would ‘be’ younger, we would lose all of the accumulated experience and wisdom we’ve gained over the years. In last night’s class, most participants responded that they would prefer to remain at their current age.
“The experience of aging helps us to develop five core strengths: knowledge, judgment, empathy, creativity and insight. Our ability to make the most practical and beneficial decisions depends upon and grows with these elements. Put together, they compose the greatest gift of aging: wisdom – the ability to deftly apply our accumulated knowledge and experience to decision making.”
As of example of creativity in later years, Dr. Agronin talks about Henri Matisse, the famous French artist who did some of his best work at the end of life while dealing with severe disability.
Be careful about spending your time pining about life as it was when you were younger. Nostalgia is “an emotional yearning for a place, time or circumstances from one’s past that one perceives to have brought great personal satisfaction, happiness and meaning.” Dr. Agronin points out that our memory of past events may be quite different from how we actually experienced them at the time.
The author suggests that we adapt a ‘creative aging’ model offered by the late Dr. Gene Cohen:, that instead of focusing on what we can accomplish in spite of aging, but rather because of aging. In summary, “We lose greatly when we cannot see the immense achievements and potential that people have in later life. Such energy is usually there and quite active, but we too often fail to pay attention to it, revel in its role in our life, and feel gratitude for its existence. When we denigrate aging and only see it as a time of decline and weakness, we rob ourselves of one of the most influential and powerful forces in our life.”
Note – the Virtual Senior Center provides ongoing education through an online platform for homebound seniors. Get more information on this program.
