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A while back The New York Times reported on Simulating Age 85, With Lessons on Offering Care. The article described a training program called Xtreme Aging. People in training do things like wear distorting glasses, wear ear plugs, tape up their knuckles to make movement difficult and walk with kernels of corn in their shoes to simulate how it feels to be old.
According to Sarah Mashburn, writing at The Future of Aging Blog in Xtreme Experience…and Empathy that's just the physical part. There's also an emotional part of the training. She writes,
Ironically, I think the most powerful part of the experience has nothing to do with physical impairments. In a ”post-it” exercise. Each participant writes down five favorite possessions, five cherished freedoms and three loved ones on Post-it notes. Then Rosebrook asks everyone to part with a possession, a freedom or a person one at a time. For some, the car goes first. Or maybe the annual vacation with a dear friend. In the end, each person is allowed to keep two possessions, which Rosebrook believes is all most nursing home residents have.
I don't know about you, but I'm older today than yesterday. This is a good thing, it means I'm still here. But it also means there are a lot of yesterdays behind me. I'm not a 30 year old in a training program. From my perspective, I'm not at all sure that aging is just about infirmity and loss. I think its about fulfillment and peace and self-expression and a lot of positive emotions, too.
Ronni Bennett, wrote a beautiful post about the awareness of mortality that comes to those who enjoy a lot of yesterdays. Her post, Mysterious New Feelings is hard to sum up, but here's a quote:
It is more a sense of mild astonishment that this body, my body (because there is a good deal of ego involved in this phenomenon) that takes up space in the world, makes footprints in the snow, a person whose efforts cause things to happen and responds to outside forces, will stop doing that.
I urge you to read the whole post. Read all the comments, too. Especially if you are young and you think growing old is going to be scary or horrible. I think you'll be surprised about what people have to say about their own mortality.
One of the groups of people I met with at BlogHer08 was the Boomers and Beyond group. These were women looking for community, for other people who were over 45 or 50 or whatever the magical cut-off age is that marks the end of "young." Older women aren't just looking for community, they were building community. Women etcetera! is an online community for women over 50. A BlogHer who attended the Boomers and Beyond session is just starting a community she calls Seniors and Boomers Community. You can get in on the ground floor with this new community.
No, it isn't all infirmity and loss. It's dancing at And the Beat Goes On. It's hip at Aging Hipsters. It's the joy of living and creating in Take Joy!.
Yes, you do slow down. Yes, you may suffer losses. But it's not all bad. So let your yesterdays accumulate and look forward to your tomorrows with fervent hopes of getting old!
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Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor
Web Teacher
First 50 Words
