1 to 100 we are all aging! For the first time in history the number of people 65 years of age and older exceeds the number of people 15 years and younger. Advances in medicine and science are helping people to live 10 to 20 to 30 years longer than prior generations, but our culture which plays a significant role in molding attitudes and behavior has not kept up.
Every day for the next 19 years we will see 10,000 people a day turn 65 years of age. What this means is that our children are growing up in a world where there are more older people than younger, and most are totally unaware of this fact. They are also unaware of the social problems related to aging that they will have to deal with as they move into adulthood, problems that no generation has ever faced before.
These issues are compounded by the fact that people simply don’t like to talk about aging. Over the years I have seen this time and time again. Most families have a very hard time bringing the subject up and talking about the wishes of parents, and today in a society that is communicating like crazy via cell phones and social networks this is still the case.
It is time that we take aging out of the closet and start talking about it. We need to be proactive about it and we need to involve not only adult children but grandchildren in our conversations so that they will not be fearful of the aging process. We need to help them to understand older adults and the only way this is going to happen is for older adults to put aside their fears and feelings about aging, and begin a meaningful dialogue with younger generations.
