What do you call a person aged between 70 and 79? (Please don’t call them OLD!)
We seem to have a need to put ourselves in categories. A century-and-a-half ago, we had two age categories – child and adult. When you started working the farm, you transitioned to adult and stayed there.
Then creative social scientists/engineers and clever marketers came up with age categories with the first one being “adolescence” which was the brainchild, in 1904, of psychologist and educator G. Stanley Hall.
From there we’ve progressed to as many as seven “age portals”: newborn, infancy, childhood, adolescence, young adult, middle age, and old age, each bringing with it a cadre of exploitive marketers and continued employment for an oversupply of psychologists.
This portal list has received even further refinement and deeper categorization, including the old age category. My favorite, as a late-stage septuagenarian, comes from the late, great author and executive career coach, Ms. Helen Harkness, Ph.D., who died in March this year as a nonagenarian just shy of her 93rd birthday.
Here it is:
- Young adulthood: 20-40
- First midlife: 40-60
- Second midlife: 60-80
- Young old: 80-90
- Elderly: 90 and above
- Old-old: 2-3 years to live
It feels good and right to still be in the “second midlife” category. Come March, I step into the Young Old category.
But that still feels good. It fits for where I feel I am mentally, physically.
It’s really all about mindset.
We’ve created one mental category (old) and a pivot point to irrelevancy by clinging to the irrelevant, illogical artificial finish line of 65 established by the government and the traditional retirement community.
That’s unfortunate because it’s a mindset that takes us to the wrong side of the mental and biological ledger.
Think old = act old.
No, brain deterioration and senescence are not automatic. We can add neurons and build lots of new synaptic connections for as long as we choose.
No, extended morbidity and early frailty are not our destinies. We can “die young, as late as possible” if we understand our biology and neurology and do the simple things they require to hang in and support us.
No, this is not new information. We’ve known these things like forever – and ignored them just as long.
D-A-R-E
I can’t avoid coming back to Dr. Walter Bortz’s simple formula for longevity from his book “Dare to Be 100”:
D=Diet
A=Attitude
R=Rejuvenation/renewal/learning
E=Exercise
While it’s a pretty simple equation, don’t be fooled into believing it’s easy, especially the “A” part. It’s the toughest because the other three don’t get enacted unless the “A” is in place and working.
As Dr. Bortz says:
“D-R-E are biological compass points for aiming for 100, but A – attitude – is most important. Within attitude lie all the planning and decision-making that facilitate the biological steps. It is possible to reach 100 by chance, but it’s not likely.”
With rare exceptions, we were given a vehicle that should carry us to yet another category – centenarian. As Dr. Bortz points out, there is no biological reason that we all should not live to 100 or beyond.
Alas, we’ve gotten really good at disproving Dr. Bortz’s claim with our self-care naivete and resulting lifestyle choices despite having the antidotes to frailty and early death staring us in the face.
Kickass Centenarian
Yeah, it’s a personal goal. It’s a repulsive thought to most and has squashed a few dinner conversations.
Why shoot for 100+?
Because I can.
Because I might just get there. I have self-care awareness and the awareness that the human body can last 122+ years.
So what if I fall a few years short, like Dr. Harkness. Better than just hitting the current average U.S.male lifespan of 78.5 years.
The criminal part of accepting “old” early is that an ailing culture is deprived of the wisdom, talents and accumulated skills and experiences that a septuagenarian can bring to the table to make a difference.
There’s lots of life to live in Ms. Harkness’s last four categories. She proved it, as are more and more septo’s, octo’s, and nona’s.
Feel free to call me a septo or an octo – please, just don’t call me old.
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