The Juvenile Geriatric Is … One

Re-thinking what I wrote last year about ageing

My Mother’s Hands 2018 ©Jane Hutcheon

This time last year, I wrote a couple of articles for The Guardian after an existential alarm. It was triggered by the death of my mother and it made me realise I probably had only thirteen million minutes left to live. I grappled with how to describe someone at sixty: a new member of the ‘senior citizen’ cohort. It seemed crazy that seniors of all ages were stuck together in the same basket, so I invented a category for younger olders; I called them Juvenile Geriatrics. I liked the title so much I christened my newsletter with it and fashioned a logo from a drawing I did when I was five years old.

Since The Guardian series, I’ve been keen to explore the world of ageing as I experience it around me. But I’ve hit a stumbling block. It’s hard to be an age enthusiast. How can one be enthusiastic about ageing when ageism is so, acceptable? I am not going to present a well-researched rave right at this moment as I have a newsletter to finish but my researched rave is not far off.

If I gave the impression that the problem is younger people being ageist you’d be mistaken. I’m talking about geriatrics of all categories, juvenile, mature and senior saying things like:

• We have to accept the inevitable (and do nothing)

• Let nature take its course

• Don’t judge me, remember my age

• I have to take things a bit slower

• I wish I could do that (learn new things)

Technology is one example of how we geriatrics can put ourselves down because there’s a tendency to neglect, rather than persist things that we suck at. As you know, I am passionate about family history. After signing up to Projectkin and meeting

Projectkin Ringleader

, I felt inspired to make an effort to solve some of my own tech problems. I have to ask lots of questions and I swear at Wordpress a lot. While I’m not ready to accept an honorary doctorate in software engineering I’m confident the offer is not far off.👩‍🎓

Technology is just one example of limiting beliefs and put-downs we older humans excel at.

When I left a long career to pursue cherished projects, I said I wanted to live a more ‘deliberate’ life. It was the best word I could come up with at the time but I’ve come to realise that ‘deliberate’ doesn’t cut it.

Some of the downsides of ageing are just heart-breaking as we learned this week after the sentencing of Canberra’s oldest murderer. And yet while ageing is rarely a trending discussion, we do need to talk about the challenges of longer lives lived in poorer health.

A researcher told me last year it was problematic to assign particular adjectives like ‘healthy’ or ‘productive’ to the word ageing because to age well is a privilege in societies like ours.

“There's nothing wrong with trying to be healthy and getting all the information in order to age in the best way, but one of the issues around that is it's not equitable. (To age well) you have to be able to afford good food, the capacity to get out there, live somewhere where you walk in lovely green places. So many people just don't have access to these things.”

The researcher is right. Healthy/productive/positive ageing is a privilege.

But I am talking about mindset not money; the thought process that goes on behind our decisions. We can stick with limiting beliefs about what geriatrics - juvenile or otherwise - are incapable of, or make vigorous curiosity a lifelong friend.

Friends, what’s your ageing mindset?

Speaking of curiosity, if you’re in an AU-friendly time zone, I’d love you to sign up for my three family stories workshops taking place in May and June. Thanks so much for reading and hope to see you soon.