Is age biological, psychological, social or all three?
Today we are beginning a series of articles on Growing Older Gracefully which appear usually on Thursdays and perhaps other days of the week, but especially on Thursdays. You can access them by clicking “growing older” below the header.
Thursdays will be devoted to something that we all are experiencing all the time whether we are consciously aware of it or not, growing older.
All things grow older and wear out. For human beings, though, it’s not just a matter of growing older but “growing up.” Growing up means increasingly becoming consciously aware of the interdependent web of life of which we are apart. Growing up is not just learning more and attaining more understanding but coming to apprehend what matters. Some call this wisdom.
Some terms we might learn are “gerontology” which is the scientific study of the biological, psychological, and social aspects of aging. In the helping fields of medicine, nursing, psychology, Social Work, and education there are professionals who specialize in helping people in the later stages of their life course who are called “gerontologists”. I switched my primary care physician from an internist to a geriatric physician. Studies have found that people who receive their medical care from geriatric specialists are more satisfied with their health care, maintain their levels of functioning longer, and live longer.
Another term less well known is “senescence” which is the application of evolutionary principles to the understanding of the decline leading to the death of humans and other living organisms. Observing senescence might lead one to laugh quoting the slogan, “Growing older is not for sissies.”
Growing older is as much a social construct as it is a biological and psychological phenomenon. How old is old is culturally and individually defined. Some say that “old” is ten years older than you are at present. So when one is 50, 60 seems old. When one is 60, 70 seems old. When one is 70, 80 seems old.
In the US since 1935 65 has been considered old because it was used as the age of retirement for full Social Security pensions. In 1935 when Social Security first started the life expectancy for males was 59.9 years and for females was 63.9. Since 1935 life expectancy has increased by 16 years. Today, the full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later, and life expectancy at birth is 76 years for men and 81 years for women.
With advances in health care with such things as knee and hip replacements, heart surgeries, and organ transplants, people experience a higher quality of life into their later years.
Old is as much a matter of mind as anything. The old saying is “Use it or lose it.” A friend of mine, when asked to describe old age in two words, said “keep moving.”
Chronological age is not necessarily a good indication of vigor, functioning, and quality of life. There are people who are old at 55 and some still young at 85. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones did a music tour in the spring and summer of 2024 promoting their new album, Hackney Diamonds. Mick and Keith were both 80 and the tour ended on July 21, 2024, five days before Mick turned 81 on July 26th.
Do you feel your age? I look in the mirror and am surprised and say to myself, “Who is that old man?”
What are you still good for or have you gone out to pasture passing the time waiting to die?
What is the role the elderly are expected to play in your family, in your community, in your state, in our nation?
What are the things you can no longer do that you could do when you were younger and still wish you could?
What are the things that you can do now that you are in the later stages of your life that you couldn’t do when you were younger and are glad that you can?
Overall, would you want to be younger again? If so, what age do you want to be?
It is interesting that the young can’t wait to grow up to be older, and the old folks, some of them, want to be younger. How satisfied are you with your present age of life?