ANOTHER WRINKLE IN TIME

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Introduction...........................................................ixThe Bottom Line........................................................1Election Fever ... Part Of The Game....................................4The Flexible Rules Of Aging............................................7Gaining Expertise: It Takes Time.......................................10Guided By Principles...................................................13Keeping Our Place In The World.........................................16From Amateur To Expert: Closing The Gap................................19Looking Forward........................................................22Irrational Optimism....................................................25A Matter Of Principles.................................................28Eight Decades Later....................................................31Measuring Up...........................................................34Off The Path...........................................................37Behind The Mask........................................................40Old Age: The Start Of Something New....................................43The Business Of Government.............................................46On Our Own Time........................................................49Doing For Others: A Blessing For Both..................................52End Of The World.......................................................55A Changed World For Seniors............................................58Our Aging Selves And Nation............................................61Our Endangered Legacy..................................................64Our Separation Complex: From Work To Leisure...........................67Principles: The Path To The Future.....................................70Patience: A Practice With A Short Future...............................73Our One Nation — Increasingly Divisible..........................76Seeing The World Through Aging Eyes....................................79Finding Our Way........................................................82Optimism: Playing Against The Odds.....................................85Seniors And Senoritas..................................................88A Senior's View Of Who We Are..........................................91Rediscovering The Constitution.........................................94A Softer Side Of War...................................................97Stretching The Brain's Waves...........................................100Finding A New Compass..................................................103The Way It Was.........................................................106Those Little Grey Cells Used To Be Black And White.....................109Old Age: A Good Alternative............................................112Our Place In The World.................................................115Thursday Night Poker: A Senior Sport...................................118The End Of The Game....................................................121Death And Taxes........................................................124Using The Mind To Build The Body.......................................127We All Belong..........................................................130When Life Begins.......................................................133Planning Ahead.........................................................136

Chapter One

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Some wise old character once observed that the principal objection to old age is that there is no future in it. Most members of the tribe of elders can suggest a few additions to that single-segment list of objections, but few serious enough to devalue the many treats still available in that late phase. The pitfalls of aging may be enough to crush its pleasures—but only if we let them. The downside of age-related deterioration is painfully clear, but concentration on its shortcomings serves no purpose.

"Old" is not new, but getting older—much older—is becoming ever more common. At the turn of the 20th century, for example, 4 percent of our people were sixty-five years and older. Now that number has more than tripled—to 13 percent. That's the good news. The more troubling concern is how we old-folk are handling that emerging longevity.

Having done our job and done it well is a worthy legacy, but may not be enough to end our journey with a full sense of pleasure and pride. My own choice, not universally available but preferable when possible, is to continue the search or the fight or the game well into the future, however limited or problematic that future may be. The disabilities waiting around our corner are too distressing and too well known to list, but to rest on the past and agonize over trauma that are still only pending is an excellent way to waste valuable and increasingly scarce time. However satisfying the past may have been, it is still the past. What is needed closer to the end is something to fill the empty space of inactivity.

The Greek poet Homer, writing about Ulysses, the hero of the Trojan War, ended his tale with the great warrior at home with his wife, living in peace and prosperity. To most of us that may sound like a pretty good conclusion, but the poet Tennyson felt otherwise about Ulysses' retirement:

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! As though to breath were life!

And that is the point about the tail end of life's adventures. If the end of the tale leaves nothing but memories and an empty schedule, it's time to explore new directions, new adventures. The vacuum at the end of the process can be more agonizing than restful, so we should not quit.

To lend credibility to some of my amateur conclusions I find support in the works of the University of Michigan's Dr. Robert Kahn, Professor of Psychology and of Public Health, whose book "Successful Aging" examines some of those same issues, albeit more thoroughly and much more professionally. He notes, for example, that for the past several decades the practice of gerontology was preoccupied more with the problems of disability and disease than with the positive aspects of aging. The new goal of today's gerontologists, however, is to look beyond the limited view of chronological age and to emphasize the positive aspects of aging, or as Dr. Kahn puts it, "to find the difference between putting one octogenarian in a wheelchair and another on cross-country skis."

Dr. Kahn then adds, "Most people seem to feel that how well one ages is hereditary, [but] ... environment and lifestyle may be more important ." He notes that while much of all mental loss connected with age is genetic, "the other half is related to lifestyle and environment. In other words, there is a lot one can do to keep one's mind sharp with age." Very simply, exercise of any sort—whether physical or mental—is valuable and productive. (In one of his successful experiments he initiated an exercise class in a nursing home. The class dealt with a wide variety of exercises, including weightlifting, and a wide range of aged participants, including a woman ninety-eight years old. They all took part and they all improved.) He then concluded, "There is a simple, basic fact about exercise and your health: fitness cuts your risk of dying. It doesn't get much more 'bottom line' than that."

That doesn't work for all...