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Sociology 120
Introduction to Gerontology

Transcript - Lesson 1

Myths and Realities of Aging

Views on aging
It is interesting to think about ageism because it is one of the few isms we could all be part of. I can never be a woman, so I probably won't experience sexism. I can not be black, so I probably will not experience racism. But I can be old. I think that makes a particular fear in us that we might undergo that kind of discrimination. Getting older, you are a new pioneer because you are forging a new role for the future aged. You are saying I can do anything I want, and I will take advantage of my later years. They are doing just that.

We are all growing older. What does it mean to be old in a rapidly changing world? How do we view growing old as our population ages? How are we affected by myths and stereotypes about older people and the aging process?

Next on growing old in a new age. Older adults vary in their feelings and attitudes about growing older.

The worst thing about it is there is not much future in it. But aside from that, I have found that in my real old age, which I have gained now, uh... I do not know-- a lot of freedom that I never had before, and I guess you do not care so much about a lot of unimportant things that you used to. What people have to say and how you look, all these things—it is just not that important anymore. One thing I find in my own friends-- and I am 57-- is a desire to live more in a communitarian way. If not actually with others in the same house, but to assure that people with whom I find life stimulating, that we can sing, laugh, and dance together, and be engaged with one another.

I am now the older generation. An older person is somebody who is 15 years older than you. In 15 years, you are going to reevaluate. But I am now part of the older generation. My parents are no longer alive.

Vi Templeton describes her mother's response to aging. When her face is made up for a special occasion and the mirror's held up, she will look and say, "who is that old lady? That I s not me." it made me realize this is not how she feels inside. This is not how she sees herself at all.

I know what it is to grow old. I have always thought 75 was a nice date, but when I am 75, I will think 85 is. You do not know till you get there. I never considered myself old until I hit 80. I think that is about the time when I thought, "now I've reached the category," especially when I have had these ailments that I had never had before, incapacitating things where you become the victim.

I realize now I am in the old-age category, and I am not-- you do not hurt my feelings now by saying it, but if 10, 20 years ago somebody said that you are as old as you feel and all that kind of stuff... But I know that there are limitations now, not because, uh... Because I call it old age, but because I see what I am doing. He can not walk as fast. I say, "let's walk briskly."

I will say this-- my brain has practically ossified. I really think so. I can not remember anything—do not remember anything. I read because I like-- I like to read the words. I like the way they are used. I like words, and I like words more than one syllable. So I read and enjoy them thoroughly. But I find myself-- this is so embarrassing. I find it necessary to turn back to find out what I was reading, about what this page had to do with what I was now reading. You needn't tell me that isn't an embarrassment, even by yourself, that you can't remember what you just read. It's the most trying thing.

When I find myself in meetings-- I still go to meetings-- I realized for the first time that I'm the oldest person in the place. Might be 20, 30 people, and I'm the top. Well, that means that you're losing contacts along the way. People with whom you associated, they're gone. They're buried. And you find that you're sticking out here in the front lane. And I just think that kind of helps me see that I am aging.

"youth is not a time of life. "it is a state of mind. "nobody grows old by merely living a number of years." many older people take special joy in life. I thoroughly relish and enjoy my life of independence. Fortunately, I 'm in fairly good health, so I 'm able to walk and drive and do many of the things that perhaps my mother's generation didn't do at my age. But I thoroughly enjoy being able to make my own decisions, to come and go and do as I please. But I 'm a very strong believer in growing with society, and I have to adjust to what goes on in the world today. I don't expect society to adjust to me. Others are affected by society's attitudes toward aging.

Kristin pollard reflects on her grandmother's outlook. She acts very, very young. Some of her friends say, "why don't you start acting your own age?" she says, "why? I am my own age. I'm young. Just because I have--" like you were saying-- "just because I have this older body doesn't mean I 'm not still young." at what age do they get these cast-in-concrete ideas of categorizing people? When you're 30, you act this way, when you're 40, you act this way, and when you're 50, you stop doing that totally. I know that young people think that sex doesn't exist past 39 or something. Ha ha ha! How do you cope with a society that tries to lay this kind of thing on you, that you have to stop being yourself because you are a certain age?

I don't feel like I 'm 62 now. I don't feel 62. I still feel or do things like when I was in the 30s and 40s. I don't feel as if I've aged at all. So in a way, when I see other people, and they think, "uh-oh. This guy is too old," you know, and... It kind of... Makes your ego just--thoo! But then you got to face it.

Things like having the check-out boy-- he's probably 17 years old-- calling you honey, you know. And, um... Having people, uh... You're obviously pretty vigorous, but-- "oh, you shouldn't do that." you know? And I think mainly that they're surprised when they find out that you are able to do a lot of things that you do and that you are interested. Next week, I 'm going to take a seaplane up to friday harbor, and I mentioned this to some of my own family. "oh, mom, do you think you should?" well, why shouldn't i?

Aging has special and varied meaning for minorities. Celestine eggleston is intent on instilling in her granddaughters a sense of pride in their heritage. I feel my responsibility is to let them know where they came from, how our ancestors got here, that we have all kinds of ancestors. I tell them nobody can make you think anything about yourself that's negative unless you give them the power to. You have to know for yourself that although, back in history, we came from slavery, that didn't mean you didn't have the same brain power that other people had. So I tell them to expose yourself to everything you can. Make the best of yourself because it's there. You've got it to work with. It's up to you. Dr.

Vern Bengtson compared attitudes toward aging among different ethnic groups. When we asked, what's the best thing about growing old so far? What do you like most about being retired? There we found some interesting differences.

The number-one thing that the whites mentioned was opportunity to travel-- in other words, engage in leisure pursuits. The number-one response of our black population-- what do you like most about being the age you are? Number-one response was having survived to this age. They were very proud of being survivors. After a lifetime, many of them, of discrimination, prejudice, low-paying jobs, difficulty with health, they were the survivors. They were proud.

What does an aging population mean for families? What has happened because of this longevity revolution in the 20th century is that we have moved from a family structure that looked like a pyramid to a family structure that looked like a beanpole. When my father came to this country from Sweden in 1910, he came with his five brothers and sisters, his two parents, his one grandmother. Eventually, he had five more brothers and sisters. So this Bengtson family in Minnesota was a very wide pyramid. Well, now in 1990, uh... What we have in my family is one great-grandparent alive, one grandparent, two parents, and three children. That wide pyramid has narrowed to a beanpole. The beanpole family may have negative and positive outcomes.

Relationships endure for decades, and often new roles are not well-defined. When parents are older and their children are middle-aged, what is your role as a parent? Much of the conflict we see with families today is around this question of what's the role of a parent who's 70 or 80 with children who are 50 or 60? It's a new problem. People didn't live to be in their 80s and 90s years ago. We don't have much history to let us know, "this is my role."

Lillian Salazar's father, who lives with her, is 104. [male] my wife is a grandmother. If we or she comes in-- she teaches till about 9:00. Sometimes gets home at night, 9:30, 10:00. Or if we're out for the evening, if we come home later than that, "where you been? You on vacation? You lost your house?" sarcastic. Very, very sarcastic. He's still the top dog, the male macho in charge of the-- he's the patriarch. "why you don't come home?" it's still the little girl. I don't like it, and I know she must hate it. It's finally getting to where I can deal with it. That was a source of irritation in the beginning, that he would dare still question me. God! I'm 58 years old!

One negative outcome is that poor relationships may last for decades. Dr. Bengtson describes a respondent in a study of three-generation families. I'm reminded of one respondent who wrote, "my mother dominates me. "she always has. She always will. "i feel like I can never keep house "in such a way that she would approve. "i have not raised my children "in a way she would approve. "i don't feel I can ever measure up to my mother's standards." what's interesting was that that woman was 63. Her mother was 91.

One positive outcome of the beanpole family is that older relatives may give us a better sense of our culture. Leo Salazar was lucky enough to have grandparents when he was young. He clearly remembers visits to his grandfather in Mexico. [leo salazar] I never saw him without a coat and tie. He'd be up at the crack of dawn. He would take me-- I was still sleepy. I'd dress up, put on a tie, and we'd go to the mercado, or the open marketplace. They would have sides of beef hanging from hooks, and they'd have all these fruits and all that, and as we'd go down the block, all the people were out washing the sidewalks and all that to cool things off, and they would say, "buenos dias, licenciado." licenciado is a title that-- in spanish, if you're an engineer, they call you ingeniero, you know. If you're an attorney, it's licenciado. I would look at him, and he would say, "buenos dias. Buenos dias." and of course, he didn't say, but I could tell they looked at him with a lot of respect. They would slightly bow and say, "buenos dias." I remember that so clearly.

Mollie pier's values began forming through her relationship with her grandfather. My grandfather went to a typical storefront synagogue. Sometimes he would take me with him. I resented that I had to sit in a separate area because I was a girl. When I learned to read Hebrew and asked him what it meant, he'd say, "you don't have to ask, because you're a girl." I was brought up that women are second-class citizens, but my grandmother earned the living and had a great deal to say about how the family was run.

The nature of relationships may change with successive generations. My parents have a completely different relationship with my children than I did with my grandparents in that they speak the same language, and that helps a lot. My mother and father are more involved with my kids. They like to take them places. I never really went anywhere with my grandparents. It's not like my mother watches my kids while I work, but that's o.k. The time they spend together is that old saying-- quality time-- but it's true. I think my parents are really with my kids when my kids are with them.

The beanpole family may include more older relatives to light the way toward successful aging. Dr. Bengtson describes his wife's grandfather's effect on his family. He went to the hospital for the first time at the age of 102. Why did he end up in the hospital? He'd fallen off a ladder. Why had he fallen? He was on the roof cleaning out the gutters of my mother-in-law's house. Why was he, at the age of 102, cleaning out the gutters on the second story? Because he'd always done it. That kind of a feisty attitude towards life-- I 'm not sure i'll be cleaning out gutters on a ladder at 102, but he was negotiating his own independence and autonomy after one century of life. I think that's the kind of role model I want my children to have as they look forward to their own aging in the 21st century.

Demographics and research
During the 20th century, dramatic changes have taken place in the world population. For example, life expectancy has risen steadily in developed nations. [rev. Fahey] in this century, we have increased life expectancy by virtually 50%. It was in the mid-40s. Now it's in its mid-70s. It's hard for us to realize this, but we're the first people in history that look forward to a relatively long and certain life.

I think we're now understanding that the aging is a population that includes all of us. We're living longer. It's no longer a question of academic concern. It's a question of our own vested interest. In nine European countries, citizens 60 and older make up more than 20% of the population compared with about 17% of the population in Japan and the united states.

Responsible for the growth of older populations are public health measures, such as sanitation and immunization, which have allowed us to survive infancy and grow to adulthood. Lower birth rates yield a smaller proportion of children in the population, while improved nutrition and lifestyles, high cure rates for infectious diseases, and improved medical care for chronic conditions allow those who reach maturity to live longer. I think we've reached a point where the older population is itself aging, aging quite rapidly. One of the fastest-growing age groups in the older population is, indeed, the oldest old group-- age 80 or 85 and over. And even within that age group, the extreme elderly-- those age 90 and over or centenarians-- although very small in number, are growing at a faster rate, the oldest old age group itself.

The other point that I think is very important to make is the impact of the baby boom, the massive demographic bulge that occurred after the rapid increase in births after the Second World War. As that group ages over the next 10, 20 years, it's going to have a massive impact on the demographic structure of the population. When the baby boom finally matures and reaches old age, I think you might call that the ultimate revenge of the baby boom. They've been the most significant age cohort, as an age cohort, in America’s history. They have driven my life and the life of everyone my age by providing themselves to be students or consumers or whatever else they might choose to be. Now they choose to be senior citizens. Not a quiet generation. They've never been a quiet generation. They will demand rights, and probably because of their number, be able to get what they want better than any other group of senior citizens.

The life expectancy of women is greater than men. At older ages, women increasingly outnumber men. An area that's beginning to be researched-- we need more work in this-- is really understanding the gender differences with aging. In the past, this area was in great neglect. If I were a man, i'd be curious as to why women live seven years longer. I'd want to know what that recipe is to extend my life. The average age in here is 77, and the percent of females to males-- it's 79% females. That illustrates, again, what's happening in our population, that women are living longer than men.

Census results show that the cultural complexion of our older population is changing, with growing numbers of minority elders. Minorities, although a younger population, are also aging. Aging among Hispanics and Asians is occurring at a faster rate than it is among the white population. The one thing that we know is that the 65-year-and-over population group within the Hispanic population as a whole is the fastest-growing one. And then the old old, which goes--what? From 80 to 95, is also the fastest-growing population within our group. It appears, as you well know, that for minority populations, once we reach that threshold of 75, then, apparently, we can expect a longer life. Although

The older minority population is growing, chronic disease remains higher and life expectancy at birth lower for blacks, Hispanics, native Americans, and pacific islanders. While the older population is growing across the country, some areas have higher concentrations of older people. These areas include the northeast, midwest, and southeast, especially Florida. In-migration of retirees accounts for much of Florida’s older population, while out-migration of younger people from farm states accounts for the higher percentage of elders remaining in those areas. About 1/4 of older people live in rural settings. The rest live in metropolitan areas.

Education and income levels of older adults have risen over the last 20 years and continue to rise. However, severe pockets of poverty exist among older women, ethnic minorities, those who live alone, and those over 85. Educational levels remain lower for minority elders, which often translates to less income in aging.

A growing number of older adults are working in temporary or part-time positions to increase their income in retirement. When we look ahead to the year 2030 and the dramatic growth of the older population, we know there will be implications for every aspect of our society, whether it's for the work environment and the concept of retirement, whether it's for educational institutions because there will be more people returning to higher education for second, third, or fourth careers, or whether it's implications for the family structure as we have more four- and five-generation families. There will not be as many people in the younger ages of the families to care for older people. There will be changes in every aspect of modern society.

Population changes are not only occurring in developed industrialized countries. As we look to the future, the majority of the elderly of the world will be living in the less developed countries. Among the less developed countries, the Asian countries will be home to most of those elderly people. This is not surprising, because the two largest countries on earth, the countries with the biggest populations are China and India. Aging is truly an international phenomenon. It's the result of the great success of lowering mortality, but it's also a result of the success in some of the less developed countries in lowering fertility. So we shouldn't think about aging as being a great problem. It's a success story.

Two fields associated with aging are growing rapidly. These are geriatrics, which focuses on preventing and managing the diseases of aging, and gerontology, the multidisciplinary study of social, biological, psychological aspects of aging. Both fields are active in research and practice. 15 years ago, you couldn't find a handful of medical schools in the country with a focus on aging. Today, there are three specialties that have subspecialization in geriatrics, internal medicine, family practice, and psychiatry. In the area of research, the growth has been very significant-- from under $50 million in the mid-1970s to almost $600 million in aging research today at the national institutes of health alone, and that's a tremendous growth in that period of time.

I would say that this is going to be the frontier of the 21st century-- explaining successful aging, explaining adaptation to the social roles and relationships which are so, uh... New in the history of our species because of the demographic longevity revolution that we're living in. And that's going to be the challenge for researchers and for students in the future-- to provide explanations that link social structures to individual behavior to biological processes that lead to individual behavior. That's what's exciting about aging for me. It really is a wonderful time to be a gerontologist. We're just riding the crest of the first few waves of explanation, of understanding, of classification.

Different types of research are beginning to shed light on aging. Surveys at a single point in time reveal differences between young and old, while investigations over time examine changes in individuals due to aging. Dr. Robert Atchley studied marital satisfaction in couples. What we found was that over time, marital satisfaction in couples went up among older couples, and the reason that happened was because the negative things gradually disappeared to very, very low levels of prevalence in the older couples, and the positive things remained. By tracing these people over time, we not only were able to say that the 75-year-olds were more satisfied with their marriages than the 65-year-olds, we were able to say why those changes happened, because they were the same individuals over that time length.

Interesting results are found when different generations, or cohorts, are studied across time and also compared with one another. Dr. James Birren comments on a study of health under way in Sweden. They've been studying people beginning at age 70, following them, and every five years, they reevaluate them, and every five years, they add another sample of people 70 years of age. So now you can look at changes within individuals, but you also can begin to see changes between generations, or the cohort effect. There's a general upward drift in the health of the population, so new generations of older people are going to be healthier. We all should be able to live to be 80. At the moment, I would say anyone dying before 80 is a premature death. I think old age for me would begin at 85.

Laboratory research is yielding important results relating cause and effect in biological and behavioral areas of aging. There have been several rat studies where the animals have been restricted in their caloric intake or protein intake, or they've been allowed to eat ad libitum, which means at will, as much as they want, from either infancy or adulthood, and it's been found that animals that are fed ad libitum have a shorter life span. Their immune systems are not as efficient as those who are fed a more restricted diet. That is, even a 10% restriction in diet from an early stage of development seems to prolong the life span of these rats. Aging's still a brand-new field. The advances have been so pronounced in such a short period of time. That speaks to the promise of research into the next century.

Myths and realities
What is the effect of an aging population on society? One effect is that our cherished myths and stereotypes about aging and the aged are being exploded daily. Growing numbers of vigorous older people are forcing us to realize that this is a new era requiring a new outlook on aging. Society has an idea that old people are all the same. Bull! There are individual differences in adolescence and among children. The same thing is true of old people. Old people are different from each other much more than they are from younger people. Older adulthood is 40 years wide, and that's enormous, and into that category not only do we lump people of all different races and genders and religious backgrounds and regions of residence and that kind of stuff, but we have this enormous age range within which we have a collection of age cohorts whose life experiences have been enormously different, and we think we'll magically come out with some general statement that will capture the essence of this group? Give me a break. I think that's unfortunately a kind of stereotype which we have about old people, that they're all clones.

Tremendous amount of individual differences, and this should be respected and understood, not to speak of actually the amount of savvy and knowledge which is available to the old person which we in the society are cutting off, which we're not making use of. Stupid! We often assume that older people can't or won’t learn new things.

One of the changes that people believe is an inevitable consequence of aging is the slow intellectual decline, what used to be called senility by everybody, and there's this assumption that we're all going to go into some kind of intellectual decline. Most of us probably really know that that's not true. We all can think of one or two examples of people who stayed intellectually sharp into their 90s and died intellectually sharp. That basically tells us that that's what's possible for all of us. I'd always wanted to play the piano. I said to myself, "when I retire, I 'm going to go out and buy a piano." I went to a music teacher, and he taught me as an adult. When we were working on the piano, he'd say, "stop. You're good enough in that. "you've got the rest of your life to perfect it." I thought that was good. I'm doing it right now.

Businesses tend to underestimate the abilities of older adults. I think a lot of businesses believe, and people believe, that the elderly simply cannot learn technology. Put them in front of a computerized machine of some sort, and they'll freak out, or they'll walk out, and they won't come back to work. But what we know is that our older adults are signing up for computer courses by the droves. They're excelling in it, getting their friends involved, and they're doing far better than many young people, so we know that that's a myth that needs to be dispelled. People who are learning and producing may not be anxious to retire.

One thing that I find amusing but also sad is a belief in our society that everyone wants to retire, and come age 55, people are looking to bail out because that is it. We've been living to get out of the workplace. The truth of the matter is, a lot of them want to stay in the workplace. Funny things happen that are subtle. Unfortunately, this myth that retirement is what everybody is looking forward to is something that just perpetuates, in a sense, a closing-off of alternatives for people who are older. It's a kind of a separation that we say to people, "you have now reached the age," and we set an arbitrary age. It's called the gold watch syndrome. Congratulations. You're now retired. And so we would ask that you absent yourself.

I was speaking in California, and I met someone who I knew very well. He was chief of medicine in a large university, and I had breakfast with him, and he said, "i look forward to Wednesdays." and I said, "what happens on Wednesday?" he said, "every Wednesday, I get a haircut." the lack of structure, and the lack of looking forward to something in terms of one's own life.

I think people, upon retirement, come face to face with the question of, "who am i? Who does society permit me to be?" because we haven't had many people who've aged in the past, that's a question we're working out through the very process of aging in our society. One thing that we have learned is that aging does not inevitably result in conservative political views. Political behavior of older persons is interesting because there are many myths attached to older persons as political participants. There's a myth that just because you're old, you're a conservative, or just because you're an older person, you're not receptive to new ideas, to new trends. That's not true. We know that older persons retain their political affiliation, that when they're older as they may have had when they were younger. We also know that older persons are as receptive to new ideas as younger persons. Older persons take an interest in what's occurring around them. They have the benefit of a long life to compare what is happening politically, whether it's a local issue, a state issue, or a national issue. So older persons, if they're persuaded on an issue, can change their minds, can form different opinions.

Religious congregations now are disproportionately old, but are older people more religious? The faith perspective is much stronger with the old than with the young. Did they become more religious when they're older? No. They were probably more faithful in their religious practice when they were younger. It's moved through the population. For black older people particularly, there's a notion that religion plays a very, very important part in their lives, and historically it has. Religion was the one thing that the slaves, for example, could practice and not be punished for. As they... As we moved away from slavery, there was the religious institution there to provide basic support, so my response quite often, particularly when looking at blacks for the moment, that religion has been a very, very stabilizing part of their lives, and as people age, religion continues to be a very important part of their lives because that's what they've had to rely on all of their lives. Mollie Pier has grown more liberal in her religious views over the years. None of my children are married to Jewish girls. It doesn't bother me, because I’ve evolved a philosophy that we all worship under one god. The manner in which one chooses to worship is his own personal business. It doesn't matter whether you're a Jew, a Catholic, a Muslim, as long as you're a good person. I feel very Jewish myself. Everybody doesn't have to feel as I do.

Positive stereotypes, such as all old people are wise, are also part of our belief systems, but we're becoming aware that they're not helpful in understanding aging. Either way you look at it, stereotypes of either the positive kind or the negative kind do enormous violence to the actual variability among older people. The truth of the matter is that the older population, people 65-105, are such a varied group of people that you can't really make very many general statements about that group that are truly representative. Slowly we are recognizing that our national obsession with youth and beauty may no longer be appropriate. We've been sold a bill of goods so that--as a way of supporting the cosmetic industry-- so that...you know, how much American women spend on cosmetics or how many women go to the beauty parlor or how many women have face-lifts or silicone implants? It's all part of the same thing-- trying to remain beautiful. We have to learn that we are lovely; we are beautiful but different when we grow older.

We're beginning to question the notion that there's no sex after 60. Our culture says sex is basically for reproduction. If you think about the people that are perceived as appropriate for sex, they are people of childbearing years, they are people who are healthy, attractive-- good breeding stock. Those are the people we think of as being sexual. Basically, if you look at our stereotypes and our values about what is appropriate sex, what is bad sex, it boils down to what approximates having a socially approved pregnancy. That does not include older people. As far as our sexuality is concerned, it gets better with old age because we're at a time now where we have no children at home, and it's, well, we have a great time together. We have a wonderful time. We really do. You know, it's like the old cliche, "the old shoe." we know one another.

Family life has not escaped our myths and stereotypes. One commonly held belief is that things were better in the past with many multigenerational families living together, while today, families abandon their elders. When we think about the past, we have this idealized view that there were multiple-generation families and everyone was living together happily. We now know that in most cases that simply wasn't possible, because people didn't live long enough to form multiple-generation households. We have so many ideas about what life was like years ago as to what it is today.

Much of the research that's been done has been very positive about letting us know that we stay very close to our aging parents. That makes us discount the myth we abandon our parents. Between 80% and 95% of all long-term care in this country is provided by family, friends, and neighbors, unpaid. The myth that families are somehow abrogating their responsibilities, the fact that we have broken households, different configurations of families, has not had any impact on decreasing the amount of informal care that is provided to disabled elderly persons. Even though the bubble of this myth has been burst many times, it keeps coming back to haunt us.

Awareness is growing that caregiving isn’t just an elder issue but a family and societal concern. At any one time, we're estimating that there are approximately 9-11 million persons who have long-term care needs. I want to emphasize that it's not just the elderly. About 1/3 of that population is under 65. When we discuss long-term care, we have to recognize that it's a problem that goes across the life span and that it's an issue that everybody needs to pay attention to.

It is widely assumed that most older people are infirm, incontinent, and dependent on families or institutions for ca. The facts are that 5% of people over 65 are in nursing homes at any point in time. The number rises to 25% in those over 85. In the community, at least half of those over 85 live independently with little assistance from family or social agencies. Even among those who are incontinent, treatment is available. Some of the people who were referred to this clinic, this incontinence clinic, were, in fact, advised by a physician that unfortunately, this is what happens when you get old, and there's not much that can be done. The startling fact is that in the incontinence clinic, there were significant evidences uncovered of illnesses that were easily treatable that reversed the whole pattern of an individual's life.

Instead of requiring care, many older people are providing care for their parents or for children or grandchildren. Some of the research I’m doing now is on a group of unsung heroines-- the older black women who are the primary caretakers for the infant and young children of their own children who are on drugs, the kids who are perhaps crack babies, perhaps victims of other drug problems. In the inner-city areas in big cities in the u.s., these problems are significant. The black grandmother has always played an important role in the family, caring for other family members.

Many older adults prefer to live independently from their families. But at the same time that we have more of our generations alive at one time, what we see is a decline in the extent to which people live together. We have the opportunity to live together, but we choose not to. I truly like to live alone. I realize the time will come that I won't be able to, but as long as I can, it's just great. I never have in my whole life. In fact, until I was widowed, I never even had a bed of my own. In my day, you lived with your parents until you married. And to be able to completely take care of myself has been a very satisfying thing.

Trends for independent living are growing internationally. The reality of aging in Japan is that with each passing decade, smaller and smaller numbers of Japanese elders are living in the same household with their children. Japanese society's moving in the same direction as American society, the same direction as European society. With modernization, with urbanization, the Japanese are faced with the same intergenerational challenges as Europe and America.

Unfortunately, myths and stereotypes of aging have led to ageism, which, like racism or sexism, involve prejudice and discrimination toward individuals and groups. I always think it's interesting to think about ageism because it's one of the few isms that we could all potentially be part of. I can never be a woman. I won't experience sexism. I can't be black. I won't experience racism. I can be old. That makes a particular fear in all of us, that we might get to where we have to undergo discrimination. I think the reality of aging is that it's a double-edged sword. There are many advantages that come with aging, advantages like perspective and wisdom, freedom from a certain amount of onerous obligations of middle age and so forth, but there are also disadvantages that come with it.

We've talked about ageism, having to confront people who don't think you're worth much in the world. Ageism is prevalent even in our language. I think language often creates reality, so we need to be very careful in the kind of language we use. You've probably seen that famous cover story on one of the national magazines about the geezers' revolt, and in medicine, often, you hear older people called gomers, which is supposed to stand for "get out of my emergency room." these terms are a way of separating ourselves from older people. We had this view that aging was all decline and decay. I remember a student in class one day kept saying decay instead of growing older. Up until 15 years ago, every time there would be an article on aging, it would be next to the obituary section. If old age is seen as a deficit, of decompensation, and that you're an old crock, that you've had your day and you've shot your load and there's not much you can contribute, sooner or later you begin to, "hey! A million Frenchmen can't be wrong." the old person integrates that sense of who and what he is, and one's sense of self-esteem, of self-worth, starts to partake of that. Eventually, the old person not only begins to feel he's a fifth wheel, but society, because of its own ideas about old age, is making him into a fifth wheel.

I sit on a board. Half of the board are people 65 and over. The mean age is in the mid-70s. Yet when we talk about programs for older adults, what we hear is, "we're planning programs for those older people." they don't want to acknowledge their own aging. This says something about how pervasive these negative attitudes are about aging, that we don't want to admit our own aging process. In ageism, all are not created equal. Gender, in very many cases, is a lot more important in terms of deciding life chances than age, and race is more important than age, so that there is ageism, and I don't want to play it down, because it's real, and it does affect people in very strong ways. It also tends to affect those people who are already in other disadvantaged categories, so age affects women more, age affects minorities more. You're discussing white, middle-class men-- they are less likely to be disadvantaged due to age.

Ageism has crept into unlikely places. We'd like to think church and synagogue influences culture. It's the other way around. Culture influences church and synagogue. If there is ageism elsewhere, there is ageism in churches and synagogues as well. It comes out in subtle ways. Unsafe lighting. Churches are awful the way they're lit. Steps unmarked. No bathrooms. Terrible sound systems. Supposed to preach god's word. You can't hear it.

To declare that you're a biogerontologist 15 or 20 years ago was essentially a commission of professional suicide. The attitudes toward research in aging are very similar to ageism as we all know it exists in society in general, unfortunately. And so scientists also suffer from ageism. The establishment of the National Institute on Aging, with its research budget, helped open the field to serious study. Research funds have enormous magnetic properties and have attracted people from many other fields previously negative toward aging to enter this field and try to understand more about it.

Unfortunately, some of these newly funded studies in aging had limitations. The health needs of women have been badly neglected in the research field. We have been gratified that the national institute of health has finally, as a result of the insistence of congress, begun to be more attentive to some of the particular diseases that afflict women and make sure that women are included in the studies, the research studies that are carried on. The very fact that women were excluded from this major study on aspirin-- do you know there were over 20,000 men in that study and not one woman to try to determine whether aspirin would be effective in helping to reduce heart disease? We are half of the population, and it is not realistic to assume that we will develop a health system that treats us equally if we only use men to study.

Although myths and ageism violate the uniqueness of elders, the reality is that older adults can find deep personal meaning in their later years. Mollie pier discovered some satisfying truths about herself in widowhood. I never realized that I had the ability to cope and that I had the ability to accept adversity, because my life was wrapped up in other people. There was my husband, my children, my parents, my in-laws, the community, the school, the neighbors, and I always seemed to come last. Suddenly, I find myself in the role of having to consider my needs, and I’ve come to the conclusion that moaning and whining and crying and railing at your fate is an exercise in futility. If a situation arises that I find difficult, I do what I can to cope with it. If it's something that I have no control over, I have learned to accept it and to make the best of it. No one goes through this life unscathed.

A lifetime achievement award triggered reflection on the meaning of his life for Herman Feifel. What a wonderful sense of fulfillment. At the same time, there's no question about it. Along with this concept of harvest comes a touch of winter because I also partake of the general feeling of what awaits one, you know? I'm hitting--I’ve hit 74. Mirabile dictu! Shows you if you have faith-- anyway, the point is that you begin to realize, as an old Jewish proverb, that I’m closer than further already now in terms of the end of my days on this earth. There's a somewhat of a kind of a chastening effect, and so I think that there's always a combination. Human beings are very contrary. Nothing's ever simple, so I partake of both. I partake one, as I said, the feeling of implementation, the sense of, if I go in for a life review, that, hey, you know, I’ve done things, and so I haven't been a cipher completely. On the other hand, there always are unassayed tasks. There are always kind of unfinished tasks.

How can we emerge from myths and ageism to create a meaningful existence in old age? How shall we live the last 25 years of our lives? Monsignor Charles Fahey of the third age center at Fordham university is grappling with these challenges. We need another bar mitzvah. We need something that happens at age 55 or 60 that says, "time out. Who am i? Who are we as a couple? "what has sustained me? "what has dehumanized me "and caused me to dehumanize others? "how do I want to live the next 25 years? "the first 20 years of life "was full of excitement and sorrow, good things and bad, joy and pain." guess what. Second--the middle of life, from the second age, was filled with the very same things-- hopes, dreams, aspirations, disappointments, frustration, pain. The third age is going to be the same thing, only I’m different now. I've had 50 years of experience. I have a set of relationships. I have more freedom, freedom in terms of time for most people, and in many ways, morally I’m freer because I don't have to live up to the expectancies of others.

You know what the enemy of the third age is? It's inertia, and it's distraction, and it's denial. The kids go, the work stays the same, and we watch the same tv programs, play golf three or four times a week, and all of a sudden I’m gray, at least men are, and we just continue on, and all of a sudden, life is over. For most people, unfortunately, the third age is not one of engagement. It's one of just letting it happen. The first thing, in terms of a successful old age and the beginning of the third age concept, is that we need culturally sanctioned period of transition in which people take time to reflect on who they are. I'd hope that we'd begin to see aging as a natural life process, a process that's continuous and that is filled with great joy as well as tribulations and challenges.

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