Successful aging isn’t for wimps

Posted by Jim Waun on June 9, 2015 in Been Featured, Health, Spirituality | 2 comments

Humans’ lifespan keeps getting longer. At the dawn of the last millennia, 1000 years ago, life expectancy was less than 20 years. By the time my parents were born in the early 1900s, it had risen to 50 years. My life expectancy, born in 1933, was 60 years. Today’s babies can anticipate living more than 78 years. Life expectancy now is more than half again what it was a century ago and almost quadrupled that of a millennium ago.

The change in life expectancy gives a whole new dimension to getting older. After raising their nine children and surviving the Great Depression, my grandparents were worn out and died shortly after reaching 65. My parents retired at 65 and lived considerably longer, but pretty much coasted along with their gradually diminishing circle of friends until they died. As seniors, they didn’t seek new hobbies or significant challenges for their minds.

With better understanding of health and disease and the development of new therapies, we can only speculate how long the normal human lifespan might be. If, indeed, there is an upper limit.

From now on, seniors will face new opportunities and challenges. After retiring, what will they do with their extra time? They’ve survived raising families and careers that defined them. They’ve gained wisdom through experience. Some will have various aches, pains and physical limitations.

Joining the ranks of the elderly is the time to shake dust off settled minds, wake up underused bodies, and get on with personal regeneration.

Some transition gradually by working longer, either full or part time in the same or a different field. Everyone needs a plan. Centenarian Walter M. Bortz II, MD has written an intriguing book, Dare to be 100. His premise is that we live too short and die too long, He gives a prescription in the form of a DARE for living longer, healthful and satisfying lives: Diet, Attitude, Regeneration, and Exercise.

There are also many role models for vibrant aging. Jane Sherman recently died at 101. As a young woman, she was a dancer, dance teacher and writer who wrote a number of books about the excitement of early 20th century American dance. After her dance career was over, she wrote for and became fiction editor at Seventeen Magazine.

Late in life, she continued writing and published poetry about aging. At 95, she published Songs of Senescence that included the poem, “Take it From a Tough Old Bird.”

This leathery hen will not call it
a day
Nor has any intention to do so.
For my wattles are up and I’m
on my way
To as many farewells as
Caruso

Transforming life and fully living until you die takes determination. It comes naturally but not automatically.

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