|
|
|
|
Life Perspectives - Baby Boomer Secrets
...by Rix Quinn
After a recent high school reunion, author and Baby Boomer Rix Quinn started wondering what answers he would get from his contemporaries
if he offered them anonymity to discuss their Boomer childhoods. He compiled a list of questions designed to find out what they had learned
over four or more exciting decades and published his findings in a book, Baby Boomers Speak: 187 things we’ve learned that you need to know
now... whatever your age! Northwest Prime Time is pleased to share with our readers a series of excerpts from the book. Whether you are
a Boomer, or the parent or child of a Boomer, we hope you enjoy this excursion down memory lane and that, like us, you look forward to
more to come in future issues!
Have you looked at your birth certificate lately? If it says you were born between 1946 and 1964, welcome to my world. You and I are
officially considered "Baby Boomers."
What do we have in common? Well, we’re over 40, but not yet over the hill. Sadly, a few of our unfortunate members are under a
hill somewhere, taking the eternal dirt nap.
But the rest of us share a unique time and space. We were born in the middle of the 20th century, and hope to live to the
middle of the 21st. When our earliest members were born, only 141 million people lived in the U.S. Today there are over
295 million.
And we Boomers make up over 78 million – or about 26 percent – of Americans. Every forth person you see at the dentist,
carwash, or leg waxing salon is a Boomer. This means that (1) we still have some of our own teeth, (2) we may drive around
aimlessly, and (3) some of us grow hair where we don’t want it. It also means we’re vitally important to the media who want
to reach us, to the nation’s retailers, to our growing children, and to our aging parents.
And, in a few years, we’ll be major consumers of all those geriatric products we’re only beginning to stock now.
Think about what we’ve witnessed in the last 40-60 years. We’ve seen television grow into an enormously influential medium. We’ve
observed a space program that took humans to the moon, and returned them safely to the earth.
Where are we going as we age? Will we someday be viewed by our children and grandchildren as a good generation? Will we make this
world a better place?
One of my friends died prematurely, in his 40’s. But not long before he passed away, he told me one thing really bothered him.
"I haven’t done all I wanted to do," he mourned. "I wonder – if somebody cares to judge my walk across four decades – if they’ll
discover I left any footprints."
What sort of footprints will you leave for others to follow?
Our generation has often been divided. By our music choices. By young men’s decision to grow their hair longer, or keep it short.
Then by the Vietnam War. Then by education. Then by political alliances.In short…we’ve stayed apart too long. This book is an
effort to reunite us. To help us focus not on our differences, but on our similarities. For whatever time is left to us (hopefully
30 years or more), we could unite to change society for the better. With our time, training, and monetary resources, we could make
a great contribution to this world.
After reading this, we hope you’ll agree that together we’ve shared so much history we should reconnect to shape the future.
Understanding us
Here’s a personal story. It’s the early 1960’s, and we’re sitting in elementary school. Around 10am the school bell suddenly blasts
three-and-a-half times.
Three rings means a tornado, and four signals an air raid. (Definition of "air raid": A nuclear attack followed by desperation,
radiation, and vaporization.)
Because we’re not sure if we heard three or four rings, we don’t know what to do. In a tornado, we’re taught to open windows and
doors. If it’s an air raid, we’re supposed to close them. So, we stumble over each other into the school hallway. If it’s a tornado,
we’re supposed to sit against the lockers. If it’s an air raid, we put our heads between our knees, and cover our scalps with our
hands. (This technique was known as "duck and cover." How it protects from nuclear explosion is a mystery to me.) Nobody knows if
it’s a tornado or an air raid, so we just kill time until the principal tells us it’s a false alarm.
And that’s what we’ve been doing these last four decades…killing time between personal storms and false alarms.
Lesson # 1: We’re pessimists by nature, but we bounce back quickly from defeat because we expect it.
Frankly, after over five decades on earth, this Boomer particularly remembers ten lessons that really helped. Here they are:
- Prepare for the future, but take time to savor the present moment.
- The video of life doesn’t have a "rewind" button. You can’t correct yesterday. You can only try to do better today and tomorrow.
- Treat your parents well. Without them, you wouldn’t be here.
- The four greatest gifts you can give your children are love, acceptance, encouragement, and preparation. The road of life can sometimes
be an uphill climb.
- Try to learn something new every day, and try to teach something every day.
- An open mind welcomes both sunlight and rain. Listen carefully to new ideas, and to people with whom you disagree. Every person you
meet therefore becomes your teacher.
- Life is a cooperative venture. Those who lived before us left us some wonderful instruction manuals. We call them "history books."
- Inspire others to read and write better. These are two of life’s most important skills.
- Nearly everybody you meet is dealing with some sort of problem. Be kind and forgiving.
- Choose a career that fits your personality, and life goals that help others.
|
The author of three books, Rix Quinn went to work for his father’s business magazine publishing company in the late 1970’s, and during
20-plus years served as a magazine editor and publisher. Later he produced short features for both network radio and newspapers. Today
he writes two weekly columns – one on Baby Boomers – and conducts writing workshops.
Copyright 2008 Rix Quinn Communications, L.L.C.
|
Living Through the Longevity Revolution
...by John Schieszer
A pioneering, Pulitzer Prize-winning doctor reflects on the recent unprecedented leap in human life expectancy— and what we must do
to take advantage of it
We are living in a time when life expectancy has increased dramatically and this new phenomenon is creating special challenges to our society.
The United States and other nations of the developed world have gained an average of 30 additional years of life during the 20th century,
greater than had been attained during the preceding 5,000 years of human history. This trend has spawned a longevity revolution, according
to Dr. Robert Butler, president and CEO of the International Longevity Center and the founding director of the National Institute on
Aging.
Physician, gerontologist, psychiatrist and Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Dr. Butler coined the term "ageism" many years ago. Now, he has
written The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life in which he lays out the origins of the revolution in
longevity. He also writes about the challenges that have been created and the adjustments that are necessary to meet this dramatic change
in society.
In 1940 only seven percent of Americans had a chance of living to age 90 but by 1980 that percentage more than tripled to 24 percent.
Dr. Butler writes that centenarians are now the most rapidly increasing age group. Currently, there are approximately 72,000
centenarians in the U.S. and that number is expected to jump to nearly one million by within the next 40 years - thanks to genomics,
regenerative medicine, immune enhancing therapies, nanotechnology and other developments.
"We are all excited about the great extension in life expectancy but there are some people who think we can’t afford old age," Dr. Butler
told Northwest Prime Time in a recent interview. There are major concerns, he adds, that Social Security and Medicare are not sustainable
and that intergenerational conflicts and gerontocracy could evolve. Some worry that adults over the age of 65 will become a drain on
resources causing economic stagnation.
But in his new book Dr. Butler explains why that should not be the case. Dr. Butler believes that we can not only afford old age but that
longevity can create wealth.
"Health and longevity create wealth through the life-long health of its citizens and the creation of the market for goods and services
for people as they grow older" said Dr. Butler.
He believes there is a lot of cynicism about the historic population shift now underway but he is optimistic. Dr. Butler said older
adults constitute a powerful and growing market, often called the mature market or the senior market. He contends that it is as significant
as the youth market of the Baby Boomers in 1960. Dr. Butler writes that the existence of this market contributes enormously to the health
care and financial industries as well as to the travel and hospitality industries through "luxury" spending on grandkids, travel and
recreation. In fact, he cites studies showing that a growing number of states and cities in the United States now recruit older persons
to their communities because of the value they can bring to a local economy.
However, he said older adults must combat ageism. Just as racism and sexism are based on ethnicity and gender, ageism is a form of
stereotyping and discrimination against people because of their biological age.
The dramatic change in life expectancy is creating enormous challenges to our society and Dr. Butler contends that we have not made
adequate research investment in aging. He cites the fact that only 11 medical schools out of 145 in the United States have geriatrics
departments. In England, he writes that geriatrics is the number two specialty. He also points out that the U.S. has not solidified
private pension plans or strengthened Social Security to ensure that people do not outlive their resources. Dr. Butler hopes his new
book will stir a new national dialogue about these issues and will spur new policy directions.
"We have never had a national discussion about this demographic change and I hope this book will help get politicians and economists
thinking about these issues," said Dr. Butler.
John Schieszer is an award-winning national journalist and radio broadcaster of The Medical Minute. He can be reached at
medminutes@aol.com.
|
|
|
|
