Citation

Sugar JA, Marinelli RD. Activ. Adapt. Aging 1997; 21(4): 1-11.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1300/J016v21n04_01

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Getting older isn't what is used to be or what science once said it had to be. Aging does not start at age 40 or 50 or 65. Every day we make decisions and take actions that affect the way we wiu, age in the future. The majority of people come to terms with the realities of aging through a long, gentle process, not an acute, painful crisis. One of the realities of aging in the United States is mat the first of the almost 80 million members of the baby boom generation will reach age 65 early in the 21 st century.

Ronald Kessler, a sociologist and program director at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, reports that the best years of life may be after middle age when we no longer have to deal with the anxieties of youth: Do I fit in? or the general distress of adulthood: Will I get my career off the ground? Most people over 60 have enough money to do some of the things they like to do; they have come to terms with their relationships. “You reach the 'it' you've been working towards and you can turn your attention toward being rather man becoming,” states Kessler (cited in Gallagher, 1993). Whereas Kessler's picture of aging is drawn from facts and figures, the image in most Americans' minds is based on myths derived not from the ordinary experiences of most, but from the unusual experiences of a few.