Many of us are going
to live much longer than we expected. I already have. As an octogenarian
the years that I'm living now are bonus years. The Census Bureau
believes that by 2050 there could be nearly a million Americans
who have lived a century. At present centenarian women outnumber
men.
So far they've been
rewarding years. I've learned a lot about myself and my contemporaries
and I'd like to share some behavior that I think might contribute
to the richness.
Older people who went
before us were said to be living on borrowed time. Our possibilities
include borrowed kidneys, hearts, corneas and livers. We need
to get well acquainted with our own bodies. Absorb as much information
as possible about any medical problems you have. That would include
learning from our doctors, pharmacists, libraries and authoritative
Internet information. Read everything from the morning newspaper
to the New England Journal of Medicine. Know what every pill you
put in your mouth is supposed to do and whether the medications
might conflict with each other. An overworked doctor once told
me that his information about a certain drug had come from the
drug salesman. That's scary
Lessen the chances
of becoming ill. We have learned that hand washing is the best
defense against germs. Be almost obsessive about it. The other
day I heard a health advocate say that we don't wash our hands
long enough. She suggested that we wash as long as it takes to
sing Happy Birthday. That's probably good advice even though
you may get some strange looks in public restrooms.
Try to be a little
food smarter. Read some labels. Notice the sodium content on canned
soups and canned vegetables. Forget about 'fry' and think 'bake
or broil.' Control your salad dressing consumption by asking for
dressing on the side. Take a low calorie treat to the movies so
the buttered popcorn fumes don't become too enticing. Drink more
water than you're drinking now.
Obesity has become
epidemic during the last five generations of packaged foods, fast
and high calorie foods. If you don't believe that, take a trip
to the nearest mall and look around.
Calcium is one of the
most important of the minerals we need. It does a lot of work
it doesn't get credit for like helping muscles to contract, the
heart to beat and the brain to think. If you drink skim milk out
of an amber glass it looks like cream. Bone scans take about six
minutes, do not require clothing removal and can indicate bone
density. If you're not doing well, the doctor may talk about weight
bearing exercise and appropriate medication.
Exercise is really
important. Active people do not break easily. We don't need a
personal trainer or a contract with a fitness salon. Walk. Don't
drive to your neighbors three doors down. Don't drive around a
parking lot for twenty minutes trying to find a space by the front
door. Park in the perimeter and walk to the front door. Take the
stairs occasionally. Exercise buys years.
Dr. Leonard Morehouse,
a physiologist at UCLA says, "An inactive life is a slow form
of suicide." The sixteen eminent scientists that the MacArthur
Foundation picked to find the answer to successful aging came
up with the right answer after ten years and a large investment.
The answer was that an involvement with life itself was the most
important factor. The irony of that was that a large number of
people of my vintage could have told them that for nothing.
You know that stuff
that you've saved for someday? It's time to notice that someday
is here. Let the Salvation Army Thrift Shop customers finish those
projects —that box of seashells in the garage, followed closely
by those half-finished needlepoint pillow tops and as for that
drawer full of old prescription glasses and cases ... do you really
think that your eyesight is going to revert to its two-prescriptions-back
condition? Drop those eyeglasses off at the optician's office
to be forwarded to the Eyes for the Needy project. The Lion's
Club also will welcome them.
You might want to practice
what Helen Hayes called "creative divertissement." She meant that
to signify disposing of things you own by giving them to people
and places where they should go while you're still here.
When you get to the cherished silver you've had to polish all
these years most of the younger generations don't want to polish
it, either, and have opted for dishwasher-safe stainless steel.
Personal property may be a small part of your estate but I've
seen whole families fall apart over who gets Grandma's homemade
quilt.
Make any health decisions
you wish and discuss them with your children. Children and friends
being asked to carry out health decisions they don't want to can
be painful for them. Why would this subject be part of an article
on longevity? Because when some of these decisions are in place,
it's an amazingly freeing process.
Don't pay an inordinate
attention to your bathroom mirror. Mine reflects that, unclothed,
I'm beginning to look a little like those Third World ladies in
the National Geographic. I remember those ladies well. My elderly
parents believed that access to the National Geographic would
suffice as my sex education
Wrinkles in a lived-in
face do not bother me. Mark Twain said, "Wrinkles show where the
laughter has been" and I have laughed a lot. I believe that laughter
is healing. Laugh whenever you can. Attitude has also been recognized
as a factor in health. Except for cases of injustice, ration your
anger. It is the most devastating emotion.
If you feel that you
need to get some cobwebs out of your mind, check into an Elderhostel
program. I've never talked to anyone who participated in one who
didn't enjoy it. If you're questioning your worth, volunteer;
volunteers always receive more than they give.
Develop a passion for
something. It doesn't have to be a grand passion. It can be anything
that interests you -— memoir writing, flower arranging, researching,
computing, bird watching, dog training or any of hundreds of others.
Always have something
to look forward to. It may be something that will be coming in
the mail, a class you're gong to take, a concert that's coming
up, a reunion with a friend, a book you're looking forward to
reading.
And one more thing
—you might want to throw out those yellowing bank statements
and keep your love letters. I threw out my love letters and kept
my bank statements and they're not the same comfort on a cold
winter evening.
Jean Pond has retired
from Adult Careers, a nonprofit company she founded in 1983 which,
over its 10 year history, found 6,000 jobs for displaced older
workers. She now applies the skills she acquired since her
80th birthday when she received her first computer in order to
mentor and inspire others at the Lakeview Senior Center's computer
lab in Orange County, California.
Jean has been a Citizen
Ambassador for People to People's International conferences in
Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and the People's Republic of China
with a professional delegation exploring aging issues as well
as representing US seniors. Her trip to South Africa in the same
capacity was for the Initiative for Education, Science and Technology.
In 1996, she was a US delegate to International Geriatric Congress
in Cuba. Jean's posts, chairmanships and awards are simply too
numerous to list.
