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Lovely possibilities come from living in the moment By Sharon Johnson Nov 13, 2022 12:30 AM A A I have a question for you. I’ve asked it before, but after this week’s election results, it should be asked again. Don’t think too much about it — just say whatever pops into your mind. Here’s the question: “What five words come to mind when you picture an old person?” That query is posed to students at Yale’s School of Public Health at the beginning of a course on health and aging. With this largely youthful group, words like “senility” or “decline” come up frequently. I suspect those two words never even entered your mind as self-descriptors. At least I hope not. For you, I hope it was words like “seasoned” or “experienced.” Even “wise” or “wiser.” My personal favorite is “valued.” The professor who teaches the Yale course is Dr. Becca Levy, a well-regarded psychologist and epidemiologist. She uses the exercise to introduce the sobering reality of age bias and age discrimination and the role of negative self-talk. Dr. Levy takes the topic further in her book “Breaking the Age Code,” in which she vividly presents how negative feelings about growing older impact physical and cognitive health, reducing life expectancy. Dr Levy’s 2002 longevity study went on for two decades and followed hundreds of people older than age 50 in a small Ohio town. It found that median survival rate was seven and a half years longer for those who had positive views about aging. Yes, seven and a half years longer. Long enough to see a grandson graduate from high school — or college. Long enough to see a granddaughter walk down the aisle or have her first baby. Look around you. Are the people in your personal and political life positive-sounding and affirming souls? People who value healthy aging and see the importance of protecting age peers and our sometimes frail elders. There’s another author on aging issues, Mary Pipher, who writes about toxic cultural stereotypes that devalue the aging person and depict aging as “burden-in-waiting.” She wags her literary finger and reminds readers that “Happiness is a skill and a choice ... We know how to create a good day.” When I was younger, I was drawn toward travel and worldly adventures. As a woman in my 70s, I still am, but I have the same feelings of pleasure sitting meditatively by a fireplace in the early morning with a cup of steaming coffee nearby and newspaper in hand. Despite a difficult year centered around a grief journey I am on, I positively envision “what’s next?” Pipher might call that “living in the moment with all its lovely possibilities.” A few years ago, I sat next to a quite elderly woman at a dinner party and asked her to give me the five age descriptors. She answered with unanimously positive responses, saying “I enjoy old people, even more so as I get to be one.” She was clearly someone who knew how to create a good day. Are you? Sharon Johnson is an associate professor emeritus, Oregon State University, and the author of “How Gray is My Valley: Enlightened Observations About Being Old.” Reach her at [email protected]