Mitch's Blog

Jonathan Rauch at The Atlantic:

We could use a new category [for adulthood], one reflecting the fact that longevity is inserting one, two, or even three decades between middle age and old age.

As it happens, such a category is available: late adulthood. Associated with such thinkers as the sociologist Phyllis Moen, the psychologist Laura Carstensen, the social entrepreneurs Chip Conley and Marc Freedman, and the activist and writer Ashton Applewhite, the notion of late adulthood captures the reality of a new stage of life, in which many people are neither fully retired nor conventionally employed — a phase when people can seek new pursuits, take “not so hard” jobs, and give back to their communities, their families, and their God.

And no, this is not a pipe dream. Copious evidence shows that most of what people think they know about life after 50 is wrong. Aging per se (as distinct from sickness or frailty) is not a process of uniform decline. It brings gains, too: greater equanimity, more emotional resilience, and what Carstensen and others have called the positivity effect, a heightened appreciation of life’s blessings. Partly for that reason, the later decades of life are, on average, not the saddest but the happiest. Contrary to popular belief, aging does not bring mental stagnation. Older people can learn and create, although their styles of learning and creativity are different than in younger years. Emotional development and maturation continue right through the end of life. And aging can bring wisdom — the ability to rise above self-centered viewpoints, master turbulent emotions, and solve life’s problems — a boon not only to the wise but to everyone around them.

Late adulthood is a time when the prospects for earning diminish but the potential for grandparenting, mentoring, and volunteering peaks. It is — or can be — a time of reorientation and relaunch, a time when zero-sum goals such as social competition and personal ambition yield to positive-sum pursuits such as building community and nurturing relationships.

… Right now, Americans are receiving more than a decade of additional time in the most satisfying and prosocial period of life. This is potentially the greatest gift any generation of humans has ever received. The question is whether we will grasp it.

I found myself nodding along to a lot of this.

… a phase when people can seek new pursuits, take “not so hard” jobs, and give back to their communities, their families, and their God.

Check. I come in to work, I work hard, I try to do great work, and when I’m done I’m done. I am no longer interested in advancing my “career” — I don’t want to be the VP of anything or grind or have a side-hustle go into founder mode or be an entrepreneur.¹ I do want to give back more to the community (I’m working on that) and family (more challenging because our families are thousands of miles away). As for God: My idea of God is that all They ask of us is we do right. (Which is asking too much a lot of the time.)

… a heightened appreciation of life’s blessings

Check. I had a very bad cold the past week, but even as I was lying in bed hacking and coughing, I was grateful to have a warm bed to lie in, and Julie to nag me to take better care of myself.

I don’t know about the need for a new category of adulthood, and a label — “late adulthood” — go go with it. Ashton Applewhite,² whose work on aging I admire enormously, uses the word “olders.” I think that type of language eventually becomes euphemisms, like the phrases “golden years” and “senior citizens” in previous generations, and the euphemisms eventually become as toxic as the original. Maybe instead we should copy the example of our queer³ friends and family, reclaim the bad word, and make it our own: “old.”

On the other hand, I have occasionally described myself as “old” to younger colleagues.⁴ “You’re not old,” they say. And I find that conversation to be a waste of time. Which is becoming more precious to me on account of my being old.⁵