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Our Day, Our Decade
Oct. 1st, 2020 01:18 pmToday, October 1, is National Seniors' Day in Canada. It's also the day designated by the United Nations as the International Day of Older Persons:
https://www.un.org/en/observances/older-persons-day
And the UN didn't stop there. They've also designated 2020 to 2030 as the Decade of Healthy Ageing:
https://www.who.int/ageing/decade-of-healthy-ageing
There's a wealth of resources on these sites, far too much to delve into in this post. So I'm going to devote the rest of this entry to a brief discussion of nomenclature.
What do we call people who are more "d'un certain age" whether that age is 50, 60, 70 or 80? Are we seniors? Senior citizens? Elders? Elderly people? Oldsters? Old Folks? Older People? The Aged? Troisieme Age or Age d'Or? And of course there are those who insist on calling somebody "99 years YOUNG" as if to be old were a terrible fate.
Then there are the words that allude to current or former employment status like retirees or pensioners. But if you've been a homemaker, non-employed parent or student or unpaid volunteer for most of your adult life, you may not feel that these terms apply to you.
Ditto for words that refer to generational status like grandparents, although certainly grandparental roles are often assumed by people who are not biologically grandparents or even parents.
Words like "snowbirds" used to refer to people who overwinter in sunnier climes tend to conjure up visions of people in their later years, though that may not always be accurate.
There's a wide range of lifestyles and health statuses and other life circumstances amongst the old. And I think old age is usually not a single demographic. As someone in my mid-sixties, I still consider myself to be in the "young old" demographic.
I won't go so far as to say that you're only as old as you feel. I think biological age (as distinct from chronological age) really boils down to a pottage of genetics, environment, lifestyle, fate, attitude and je ne sais quoi.
https://www.un.org/en/observances/older-persons-day
And the UN didn't stop there. They've also designated 2020 to 2030 as the Decade of Healthy Ageing:
https://www.who.int/ageing/decade-of-healthy-ageing
There's a wealth of resources on these sites, far too much to delve into in this post. So I'm going to devote the rest of this entry to a brief discussion of nomenclature.
What do we call people who are more "d'un certain age" whether that age is 50, 60, 70 or 80? Are we seniors? Senior citizens? Elders? Elderly people? Oldsters? Old Folks? Older People? The Aged? Troisieme Age or Age d'Or? And of course there are those who insist on calling somebody "99 years YOUNG" as if to be old were a terrible fate.
Then there are the words that allude to current or former employment status like retirees or pensioners. But if you've been a homemaker, non-employed parent or student or unpaid volunteer for most of your adult life, you may not feel that these terms apply to you.
Ditto for words that refer to generational status like grandparents, although certainly grandparental roles are often assumed by people who are not biologically grandparents or even parents.
Words like "snowbirds" used to refer to people who overwinter in sunnier climes tend to conjure up visions of people in their later years, though that may not always be accurate.
There's a wide range of lifestyles and health statuses and other life circumstances amongst the old. And I think old age is usually not a single demographic. As someone in my mid-sixties, I still consider myself to be in the "young old" demographic.
I won't go so far as to say that you're only as old as you feel. I think biological age (as distinct from chronological age) really boils down to a pottage of genetics, environment, lifestyle, fate, attitude and je ne sais quoi.
