What Is Old Age Anyway?

For several years now, I have been struggling with an affliction that I could call “outdated views of old age.” When I was growing up back in the 1950s, 60 years old was “really up there.” Today, that has changed dramatically. Now, 60 is “the new 50.” I have had trouble grasping that.

There is a government program that promises to help “mature” unemployed workers find part-time jobs. In my recently unemployed condition, I decided to go to the local office for this program and see if I could find some work to help tide me over. I am mature, I am unemployed, and I supposed that was all that is required to take advantage of this program.

The lady who runs this program is herself quite mature; she’s in her 80s. I bit back the old cliché that she is well preserved. But she is. She and I have visited quite a little over the two weeks that we’ve known each other; like me, she can’t really afford to retire. And she didn’t care for retirement very much when she tried it, anyway. I had thought this lady was around 72 until she told me she is 81! And at that moment I began to see something new.

I have been uncertain about how I feel as I contemplate continuing to work at an age when most of my contemporaries are retired and enjoying their freedom. To be honest, I have had more than a tinge of self-pity about it. My life has been one of inner searching, not accumulation of retirement funds, let alone anything resembling monetary wealth. There has been no career, no high-paying jobs; now I near retirement age with an exceedingly slim balance in one savings account, no IRA, no investments. I cannot afford to retire. And I have a Ph.D. Even though I realize that this situation is the result of my own choices, somehow it doesn’t seem right.

But after meeting this lady at the government program’s office, I see another side to it. Continued activity. Challenges. Things that will keep me physically healthy and mentally alert as I move on into those “golden years.” There’s nothing wrong with doing things that keep me healthy and alert as long as possible. My only request is that I might find work that does more than just build a bottom line for a cadre of anonymous shareholders.

As it turned out, I am too rich (although I can’t afford to retire) to qualify for this program. All the time and work to register produced nothing. The job interview I got through the program led to nothing, although I think the people wanted to hire me. That’s what happens to me when I try to get help from the programs I have paid taxes into.

But the opportunity to get acquainted with that 81-year-old lady, who enjoys working and likes the way it helps her stay spry and alert, taught me something. That makes the entire fiasco worth the time I spent there. I know now that age really can be just a number. I’ve been writing myself off based on ideas about old age that just don’t hold true today. Now - I don’t do that any more.

The disappointment was worth that.