Baby Boomers Grow Up

The question might be; did we grow up or grow out. I am guessing there was some of both. We are older, somewhat wiser, certainly heavier than those willowy teen years, and we cling to our youthful memories like bark clings to a tree. We are in a chapter that we laughed at when we were young and fearless. Grandmas’ with false teeth, Uncles grey haired and stooped, Aunts with tight perms that looked like the nest of a bird. How we laughed. Well certainly our older population does not quite fit the mold.  We work out to some degree, we color our hair, we fix our teeth, and more than a few get a little help from the plastic surgeons. How we embrace this chapter of more limited mobility, as in dancing the Twist to Chubby Checker, or running a marathon has a lot of variables but there are some things there are no escaping, our bodies are older and more worn.

The clever marketers have new labels for us, active adults, independents, vibrant and anything that will entice us to embrace their products.  The realities lie a bit beneath all that hyperbole.  We have a deserved reputation for being avid consumers and the peddlers are still out to get us. The difference is that by now we live with realities that are not depicted in their incessant commercials about the good life.  It is a good life but for a lot of different reasons.

The biggest tool in our bag of tricks for facing the challenges of getting older is a sense of humor. It can carry us through a myriad of circumstances that otherwise might have ignited us into a raging fire. Where there were raised eyebrows and racing heart beats now there can be a good belly laugh. That sense of humor can keep you younger than anything they put in a bottle or capsule. I want to explore the daily challenges that come upon us and how a sense of humor casts a light of guilty joy.