Not A Tsunami. A Silver Reservoir.

By Karen and Erica

Our title is one woman’s view of the new demographic of which we are all a part. That woman is Jeanette Leardi, social gerontologist and author of Aging Sideways. 

Leardi’s concept of “aging sideways” comes from a technique in art called upside-down drawing. She explains, “When artists draw a subject upside down, they disengage their brain’s preconceptions and focus on what’s there—the lines, the shapes, the spaces. Aging sideways works the same way. We need to look at aging for what it truly is, not through the lens of stereotypes.”

Aging, Leardi asserts, is more than gray hair or diminished physical abilities. “Our brains change in fascinating ways as we age,” she says. “The corpus callosum thickens, helping us integrate logic and creativity. It’s not about either-or thinking anymore—it’s about being able to see the possibilities in the gray areas.” Research increasingly supports this, showing that the aging brain often excels at making nuanced decisions and synthesizing knowledge from experience.

That we think differently from our younger colleagues is the best possible reason for intergenerational teams.

“There’s this false belief that older workers need to step aside for younger ones to move up,” she says. “That’s just not true. Teams that combine the creativity and energy of youth with the foresight and experience of age are the most productive.” The key, of course, isn’t exclusion—it’s collaboration.

Leardi’s perspective echoes that of Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH, until recently the Director of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia, who also waxes eloquent about the amazing new life stage created by healthy longevity. 

“It’s quite extraordinary what public health has done,” says Fried, who co-chaired the commission that created the report and played a key role in shaping its vision. “Public health is already responsible for 70% of the opportunity for health,” says Fried. “And our investments in prevention have created longer life spans—people around the globe have almost double the life expectancy they had in 1900.”

She goes on to remark:

Science suggests that if older people can stay healthy, they will put the immense talents and assets they accrue over life to good use. “As we age, we gain knowledge and expertise, along with the intellectual and cognitive abilities to decide if something matters. We can bring these powers to bear to come up with critical solutions to problems of import,” says Fried. She says that the largely untapped human capital of older people—which only grows as more older people remain healthy—will create a third demographic dividend, one that flies in the face of the Reagan-era economic perspective that tends to see seniors or anyone in need as a potential societal burden.

Leardi and Fried are on the front lines of today’s discussion about age. But, remarkably, they follow in the footsteps of John F. Kennedy, who saw, unusually for his generation, that aging, and attitudes about aging, would have to change. He did not live to see healthy longevity take shape, but, in a way, those of us on the leading edge of this generation will live it for him, as we are among the Kennedy-era youth [who] have a strong personal connection to his words. [We] are the leading edge of a new demographic order. We are poised to live the lives he envisioned. 

President John F. Kennedy, whose appeal to create a better world inspired and motivated a generation of youth, had a keen but less-recognized focus on older Americans. He lamented that their talents were “all too often discarded” and that a narrow view of aging—as a time of decline and dependency—obscured the many ways they could contribute to their communities, employers, the economy, and the nation. He saw that cultural attitudes and institutions were not keeping pace with increased longevity and the vitality of older adults that had evolved throughout the 20th century. At the edge of what he termed “the new frontier of longevity,” Kennedy called for “dignity and security and recognition” for older adults. More than half a century later, Kennedy’s concerns remain more pressing than ever for businesses, communities, and families across the nation and world. The new longevity landscape is a vital reality affecting the lives of today’s adults and of generations to come. How society and its institutions respond to a rapidly aging world will determine humankind’s future. 

We are extraordinarily lucky to be living in this amazing age. We are all on the front lines of this new phase of human life.  We pray that the scientific efforts continue, so that the benefits of healthy longevity will be available to all. And we plan to use our extra years to redefine retirement for women like us, so that we can be a moving force in designing the lifestyles we have been allowed to enjoy.

It’s a gerontologic moonshot.