By Shae Hadden
Bio
Consider
that the entire universe is made up of the same matter, the same
particles that existed in the first flaring forth of space and time.
And that these same particles are recycled into different forms time
and time again. Essentially, each one of us is as old as our universe.
And according to recent calculations based on the Big Bang theory,
that’s about 13.7 billion years old. In other cosmological models, the
universe has an infinite age.
So if you’re thinking
By Elizabeth Russell
Bio
View the first post in this two-part series.
The conversation about age begins when we are born and continues throughout life. It may be written or spoken. It may come from our mothers (who heard it from their mothers) or it may come from people who have studied other people in order to make profound pronouncements. Whatever the source, it is all conversation. And labels are one element of the conversation—labels we give to everything, labels that carry weight and are endowed, over the years, with meaning such as young, old, immature, stodgy, etc.Those who engage in the conversation don’t make it
up. It is a given, running through all the channels—parents, peers,
school, television, advertising, public and private institutions. From
this conversation we learn there are things we can do at five that we
can’t do when we are seven, responsibilities we have at 15 that we
don’t have at 10, privileges we acquire at 21 we don’t have when we are
17.
Social
People sometimes ask me what I mean by ‘the culture of aging’. I can start by explaining what I mean by ‘culture’.
Culture is, first of all, a word. And, like all words, it is a label for some phenomenon, some observable thing or idea. Culture is a concept and a very basic aspect of who we are. It contributes to how we relate to the world and, most of the time, constitutes an opening for our actions. It is a context for our human experience and occurs as a kind of non-stop conversation
Aging brings with it a host of changes: physiological, mental and social. If we advocate the popular belief that our minds are separate from our bodies, this process of change can be objectively assessed as a story of decline originating in either sphere. Seen this way, the health of our body limits what we can accomplish in later life by dictating what we are physically able to do; similarly, declining mental health, as a symptom of aging, can bar us from making a meaningful contribution.
Many
By Shae Hadden
Bio
If
I were to have a child (a hypothetical choice at this point in my life,
as I am long past my child-bearing years), I would not be able to bring
them up without teaching them what to expect in the future. For from
the first time they cry and I respond, I would begin a pattern of
stimulus-and-response behavior that would create an expectation. If I
can perceive that my child is hungry, I would feed them: wet, I would
change them. In need
Last week, the International Herald Tribune featured a fun editorial on the Game of Life Twists & Turns by Lawrence Downes. He was musing that if ‘life is a game’ he hopes it isn’t like the 120-year-old brainchild of Milton Bradley. It seems that the board game is getting another face-lift in August (the last one was about 1960). I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
His description of the ‘new’ Game of Life and of playing it with his young
In loving memory of my mother, Ruth Selman (1920-2007), who passed away this morning at 11:20 am.
I am distracted by thoughts of dying, My actions blown away on wasted winds of imagination and thoughts I cannot think or speak.I celebrate tomorrow and yearn for yesterdays,
The weakness of a restless soul longing for realities unlived and lost forever in the desert of forgotten dreams.I am longing to disappear in a transcendent moment,
Able to relate in a comforting embrace and forget the lost moments of unexperienced possibilities and unconsummated potential.I am too many people in too many times,
Filled with the pain of seeking what cannot be sought and hoping for resolution of unasked questions that have no answers.I have circumnavigated the Universe eight times and seven,
Being both lighthearted and a dark cloud without reason, knowing only that I AM and always will be searching, without sleep or time to rest.I am movement itself, without form or fashion, direction or goal,
Forever trapped in this prison of time and space, physical without form and spiritual without Being or power beyond myself.I am beyond mere words—a silence embracing the absence of sound.
Rebirth isn’t possible when we cannot die or find an ending to the process we began so long ago—before we knew the cost of time.I am Yesterday, Tomorrow and Forever, surrounding both life and death,
Now cannot be me, but it is all there is, and therefore I am not and never was—until someone finds me waiting for them for all eternity.By Elizabeth Russell
Bio
We think of aging as something that happens to us, something as
inevitable as waking up in the morning. But what if our way of speaking
about aging actually influences our experience of it?
Satchel
Paige once asked, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you
was?” Because he was black, he wasn’t allowed to play major league
baseball until he was well past retirement age for ball players. When
he finally got
Have you seen the YouTube clip of the Zimmers— a group of older folks singing a refrain from “My Generation” by The Who?
They look like they’re having a good time making the point that their generation is cool too. Interestingly, a lot of normally ageist folks are applauding—expressing a kind of ‘good for you’ (you nice, sweet, otherwise decrepit old fogies). Personally, I think the song and the singing are fun, but it also reinforces a lot of ‘old people’ stereotypes.
Putting
By Shae Hadden
Bio
In
effect, we’re judging whether their actions are ‘normal’ and
‘acceptable’—as compared to the majority of people of that same
chronological age in our society. But our assessments are neither true,
nor false. They are simply our perspective, our evaluation, of what we
perceive.
In many cases, our assessments have nothing to do
with age—they simply mask our judgments of the individual’s social
behavior or growth (either emotional, mental, physical