Letters submitted by BDN readers are verified by BDN Opinion Page staff. Send your letters to [email protected]
The message to readers about examining their attitudes about aging (Aug. 7) needed to be said and could not have come at a better time. Americans and Mainers are living and working longer, demographic trends that show no signs of receding any time soon. As an octogenarian, I have witnessed firsthand how “faulty generalizations” about what seniors can and cannot do pervade the culture and have even developed into the conscious and unconscious biases and prejudices that were cited by the message authors.
People passing through late adulthood age differently. That said, their children, family, friends, employers, as well as the general public, should devote as much time to the celebration of senior abilities and achievements as they do to over acknowledging and distorting their losses. In retirement, I am currently writing “Navigating the Senior Years: A Counselor and Octogenarian Talks with Seniors, their Children, Family Members, Friends, and Caregivers about the Challenges of Older Adulthood.” There are times when I feel like Grandma Moses, another senior that started and produced all of her acclaimed work late in life.
Checking your attitudes about aging begins with concentrated observation and ongoing communication with the older adults in your universe and allowing their voices and their behaviors help you to understand what they can do and not do. Trust me; you may be surprised!
Frank Burtnett, Ed.D.
Fellow of the American Counseling Association
Rockport
