Old is the New Black
Life in the Boomer Lane would love to take credit for having thought up that clever title, but it came from elsewhere. The words are true. We are becoming old. Our country is becoming old. The world is becoming old. If you are on Facebook regularly, you may have believed that the world is filled with babies and toddlers. Their delicious little looks bombard you every single day. No one posts photos of old people, unless they have just passed on or unless it is Mother’s Day.
But the opposite is true. Time Magazine reports that, for the first time in history, the number of people over 60 exceeds those under 15. This phenomenon has, apparently, crept up on us. We were simply too busy focusing on the babies flashing by on Facebook, the barely post-adolescent children who walk the fashion runways, and the popular media that relentlessly touts youth. We completely neglected to notice that there are way more of us than there are of them.
Time Magazine has noticed. They have posted a bunch of fascinating articles about aging called “Beefed Up.” Whoops, that was actually another article, which compared popular hamburgers. The aging article is titled “The New Age of Much Older Age.” It’s worth reading. Or, you can bypass the pieces and simply allow LBL to tell you what to think about them. There is so much material contained in the articles, that she will be writing several posts, based on the different areas of aging written about in the magazine.
Areas covered will be living longer vs living better, cures for aging (yes, science is actually becoming successful at this), the best place to be old, timelines of aging in body parts, how outlook changes aging on the cellular level, the value of brain games, the best diet for aging, and who is expected to win the Oscars. Whoops, again LBL must apologize. She flipped one page too far in the magazine. But she was gratified that Time predicted that Eddie Redmayne would win for The Theory of Everything and Julianne Moore for Still Alice.
Stay tuned. Not for an analysis of the Oscar wins, but for whatever brilliant bits of info about aging LBL can glean and then pass on to loyal readers. A word of caution: As the days go by between aging posts, you will be aging. Best take notes or print out all the posts. Otherwise, your brain, like Julianne Moore’s in Still Alice, might take you to places you never intended to go. You might refer back to the posts at some time in the future, see only the reference to hamburgers, and go out and drive to the nearest beef -on-a-bun emporium. You will never learn about aging, but you might score a really tasty meal.
about Renee Fisher……
Renee’s entire life has been formed by her naturally curly hair and her having topograpanosia, a real disorder of the frontal lobe that results in a complete inability to orient herself in space, as well as an inability to remember people’s names. Because of this disorder, she gets lost a lot. If you see her wandering around anywhere, don’t call anyone. Just get her ice cream. That will calm her down. For the hair, there’s not much you can do.
She is, indeed, a former hula hoop champion, as well as the co-author of two books for women over 50. They are Invisible No More: The Secret Lives of Women Over 50 and Saving the Best for Last: Creating Our Lives After 50. She is also a Featured Blogger on Huffington Post. If you are a very important publisher, a wealthy donor, or if you would like Renee and her co-authors to speak or lead a workshop for your group or organization, you can contact her at: lifeintheboomerlane@gmail.com