The Wisdom of Our Elders

The Boomer generation is used to forging its own path in modern life, but there is much to be learned from older people who've looked back on their lives. Now, a group of 70-year-olds has some advice for a better life. New York Times columnist David L. Brooks asked older people to share some of the life lessons they have learned.

Risk: far more seniors regret the risks they did not take than the ones they did.

Generations: many of our elders have troubled attitudes towards their own parents, but they seem extremely proud of what their own children have accomplished.

Divisions: the happiest people divided their history into chapters or phases, each with its own requirements and successes. The unhappy ones thought of themselves as corks bobbing up and down on the ocean of life, helpless to control their own fate.

Rebellion: for fifty years or more, our society has celebrated the outsider and the rebel. Brooks reports that the "most miserable" of his correspondents were always rebelling against the world and ended up not achieving much except sour memories. His advice is to work within groups or institutions to try to accomplish meaningful change (see Risk, above).

Boomers have been faulted for looking inward, for disrupting social conventions, and for rejecting many old-fashioned values. It's worth remembering that people we consider "elderly" today, the generation just a decade ahead of us, also lived through a time of opportunity and social change. It's nice to have their wisdom to guide us into the future.

What's Age Got To Do With It?

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a presentation for the Wood County Comm. on Aging at a 55+ women's retreat. It was titled, What's Age Got To Do With It? 10 tips for looking sassy and classy.

After my presentation a woman came up to me and said she wanted to have the whole image package (color and makeup analysis, closet makeover and shopping.) She said she was 74 years old and that her daughters had been after her to update her look. She warned me that she still had things in her closet from 1965.
The ironic thing was, while I opened my big, 'ole datebook, she whipped out her blackberry!



Isn't it funny how we can be progressive in area thing but dated in another?

Commercial Opportunities for Boomers?

Once you start looking for something, you begin to see it everywhere. That explains why lately I walk around with dollar signs in my eyes! Older generations are more active than they used to be; transportation and assistance groups make it possible to maintain independence into one's eighth and ninth decades (and beyond!) .

As I go about my daily activities, I am surprised to see that very few businesses have made even the slightest accomodation for their older customers. Front entrances are cluttered or hard to find; printed materials are hard to read (made worse by careless choices of light-colored ink, small letters, dark backgrounds); store layouts often funnel their less-agile patrons smack into the whirl of harried customers coming and going, shepherding children, grabbing carts (not naming any names, K--ger!).

Toledo-area publishers (with a few exceptions) have begun to shrink their pages and micro-size the content in order to fit, thereby rendering their products less useful to the very people who still appreciate newsprint and subscriptions: the loyal older reader. It seems to me that many small changes could be made to improve the customer experience, especially in industries that claim to face extinction because the times have changed.

Could a consultant make money advising businesses how to adapt their products and practices to fit the needs of their aging customer base? After all, a business that caters to "the elderly" will be drawing on an enormous population of boomers, for decades into the future. Is this an area where boomers could begin to request some improvements, recognizing that there's money to be made?