LET’S DISRUPT AGING

THE OLD RUSTY NAIL

 AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

         Russell Burton, an Old Person

The title of this article is from the title of a piece written by American Association for Retired People (AARP) CEO, Jo Ann Jenkins in the October 2014 issue of that publication.  The author having been President of this organization before becoming its CEO I would peg her age in late 50s or early 60’s guessing from accompanying photograph. Of course published photographs can be misleading but her article indicates that she is somewhere in that age bracket.

AARP membership begins when a person reaches 50 years of age so I suppose she could not have started those careers before she was 50 assuming you must be a member of AARP in order to hold those offices. On the other hand, AARP doesn’t ask for IDs so I suppose someone if they so chose could become a member of this organization at the ripe old age of 49.

What is interesting about AARP is that it is a group formed in support of retired people as its name implies.  Now, people have been known to retire in their 20’s but of course the vast majority of retirees are late mid-life to being old like me.  Still, I did retire when I was in my late 60’s and like I have written before, that decade is a piece of cake regarding aging.  In fact, being old could not have been further from my mind.

This takes me back to the intent of the title of this article.  Of course for someone in their early 60’s to talk about aging is like a physician telling sick people how they feel.  At that age, I was at the apex of my career and aging really never crossed my mind.  I assume being CEO of such a large corporation as AARP is probably the pinnacle of Ms. Jenkins’s career.  So, why is she thinking about aging? Well she is in her AARP article.

AARP because of its intent has always struggled to identify with really old people who need the most help with the symptoms of old age.  Certainly youngsters in their 60’s and even in their 70’s are perfectly capable of living with much less support.  And, that is too bad because we old people do need a strong advocate as we deal with this 'disease' of old age. 

So, Jo Ann is beginning to struggle with this age thing as she is determined not to be defined, as she named it, with one’s age.  As if when someone reaches the ancient age of 60 they are thus identified as being old.  To be exact we are always identified with our age.  You know first I was a baby, then a child or adolescent and then a teenager too young to legally drink alcohol and vote in a national election.  Then I became a young adult and suddenly without warning, I was middle-age which depending on one's view point can continue into the 70’s.

Yes, I said the 70’s which I learned when I was told of a study conducted by an expert in management dynamics.  You see I worked for the Air Force as a scientist for nearly thirty years.  During that time I was sent to several management classes in order to sharpen my management skills.  I must confess that my management skills did need sharpening.  In fact, I had too few management skills to sharpen as I later learned.

None the less, there I was deeply engrossed in my management class much of which I do not remember except this one tidbit of information.  The instructor told us that during one of his classes several years before he took an ad hoc survey on those people present about whom in his class considered themselves to be middle aged?  Most everyone raised their hand including a man in his 70’s!  Certainly age was not going to define him.

Jo Ann goes on to explain that this disrupting aging thing begins by feeling good about where we are in life.  Well, I hope she feels good about herself with her lofty position. Still, I could not agree more for when I was in my 70’s and retired and after some struggle with my loss of purposefulness I really felt good about where I was in my life but then I had no choice.  My goodness, I feel good about where I am in my life at age 84 + because I am still alive!  That alone is sufficient to make one feel good.

She goes on making herself feel good about growing old with the following statements: we face different challenges (you bet) and have different goals (staying alive is one big one); we are motivated by different things; we see the world through a lens shaped by ups and downs and gained wisdom; with age I am more ‘purposeful’ because of my experiences and wisdom; and, looking forward to the years ahead not looking back.

For some of us really old people we have to look forward because we can’t remember much when we do look back.

Her use of the word ‘purposeful’ intrigued me so I looked up the meaning in my Webster’s New World Thesaurus.  Essentially she means one is more focused when we age.  Now, I certainly disagree with that because before I retired I was extremely focused on my job as she must be.  When I retired I struggled for years trying to find my focus because in retirement I had lost it.  One day I was Chief Scientist of an Air Force laboratory and the next day I was a retired nobody obviously without a purpose.

So, I wonder how someone with a challenging job like she has as CEO of a multi-million dollar organization can understand what the realities of retirement are much less the challenges of being old.  Now I am quite certain that I will not live long enough to ask her about purposefulness when she is retired and living in the 80’s age bracket (if she is lucky) because I would be over a hundred.  Thoughts about living that long boggle my mind and I would not classify them as being in my hopes, dreams and aspirations.  

Yes, she can talk about the fun of growing old, because for her it is probably 20 + years from now and as I have written before, humans think about the future differently than they do the present.  And, the future has a nasty habit of suddenly becoming the here and now.

Still I like what she is trying to do by making aging a fun game.  Unfortunately it is not a game and it is not that much fun.  Still aging is a privilege which us old people must realize because not understanding that it is indeed a privilege would make being old a very depressing experience.  In that regard, I guess I am disrupting aging and living a relatively pain-free life is purposeful.

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