Flipping the script on aging – an interesting concept. No surprise that Dolly Parton and Cher, both now age 80, exemplify the script flip. That flip includes the substantial cosmetic work that each has had to produce a new (and then newer) face. Both are still performing – as are numerous other 80+ rock stars like Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney. Good for them. I guess. Is this an aspiration to be shared by the millions of baby boomers headed toward or arrived at 80? Is playing pickleball the standard by which 80-year-olds want to be measured? How about drug-facilitated weight loss?
Competitive aging – it’s been around for ages. Remember Nora Ephron’s classic, “I Feel Bad About My Neck”, her observations about trying to look good, but worried about aging as confirmed by a look at her unmodified self in the mirror. Irony of ironies – she never made it to 80, dying at 71 of leukemia. Today, modifying oneself in one’s 70’s is now drug-enabled, as with the startling growth of GLP-1 drugs, ostensibly for managing diabetes, but very popular now for losing significant amounts of weight, including lean muscle mass, especially a concern for older adults.
Ageism – also as old and predictable as forever. The baby boomer generation has crossed into their 80s – and besides pickleball and GLP-1 drugs, the goal is to ‘age well’, as a personal responsibility. Ah, but it’s not all pickleball and going down a dress size. There are warnings about how much longer life expectancy will cost society. Will the federal assistance programs be sustainable? Blah, blah, blah. These are the targets of a wide variety of ageist commentary, meanwhile as life expectancy at 65 lengthens and lengthens again -- one in four 65-year-olds today will live into their 90’s.
In an ageist society, where will older adults live? Housing solutions for an aging population are segmenting into categories – see ‘active adult’ and 55-plus (both with plenty of pickleball). Then note those that are either unappealing or too costly for most older adults. Like the truly ageist housing categories – do older adults want to move to a place that buckets them based on capability as ‘independent’, assisted, memory-impaired, or in need of skilled nursing? Besides the dramatic differences in cost and financing, note the separation of the oldest from interactions with the ‘independent,’ presumably so as not to depress them. And then there’s the alternative of ‘aging in place’ no matter how frail or in need of assistance. Hence the boom in the home care industry, but sadly, 80% of newly hired care workers quit within one year. Will this spawn a pendulum swing back towards senior living following a house sale? Cher and Dolly will be okay, but will the rest of us?
