Handicaps are not failures, and we all have some -- physical, social, educational, circumstantial. They may even signal prowess (the best golfer gets the highest handicap, and the racehorse with the most victories carries the heaviest weight). In our society being old is a social handicap. A "dis-ability" is not even required.
Too often able seniors are marginalized. For example, when submissions to galleries and journals are invited from designated groups (the disabled, racialized, trans, neuro-diverse and so on), seniors aren't among them. In that regard, seniority really is a handicap.
Society, then, isn't more equitable than it was, the musical chairs have merely been re-arranged on the floor. When the music stops, the elderly are the ones most often eliminated. This accomplished tribe is demoted, but in the culture wars ageism gets a free pass, and seniors have no "Senior Lives Matter" movement. Maybe that's because older means wiser and wisdom includes acceptance. Older may also mean tired, as in tired of sectarian battles.
Seniors are supposed to retire gracefully, as from a field of battle. Even if still at the height of their creative powers, most don't have that lean and hungry look that signals prowess.
Yet we all know people in their 90’s who aren’t really in retreat. They are hungry for knowledge and information. In Canada, people over 55 are the biggest news-consuming group, according to www.marugroup.net/polling.
Staying informed and sharing views about current issues is recognized as an aspect of healthy aging. Ditto engaging in creative pursuits, which are often patronizingly considered appropriate to the retirement years: people are more willing to admire the paintings which older citizens exhibit in craft fairs than they are to listen to their political views.
According to https://rishihood.edu.in/
According to Statistics Canada, “from 2016 to 2021, the number of Canadians aged 65 and older rose 18.3% to 7.0 million". This represents nearly 1 in 5 Canadians (19.0%), up from 16.9% in 2016. Older Canadians are staying healthy, active, and socially involved for longer. The cohort aged 85+ has doubled since 2001, and according to projections, could triple by 2046.
In 1981 BC seniors made up 5.4% of the labour force; by 2016 they made up 11.6%. Yet there has been no preferential hiring for them; on the contrary, in many professions they're forced into mandatory retirement despite being the most experienced and skillful workers on the scene, and despite the "quiet quitting" habit their juniors go in for now. Still, some seniors are taking up more roles in the economy, though without a movement signifying that they matter. What might "Senior Lives Matter" accomplish? For a start, maybe it’s time for art curators, editors and social influencers to add “elderly” to the list of disadvantaged groups from whom they solicit contributions. We could also make a point of supporting post-retirement commercial enterprises launched by seniors. We should encourage seniors to write their memoirs, which will provide tomorrow’s insights about the history of today. Memoirists report from a ring-side seat on the unfolding drama of current affairs, and the longer you’ve lived on Planet Earth the more insightful your judgement will be. Let us all, and our descendants, sample the smorgasbord of wisdom offered by elders in their memoirs.
Part of wisdom however is the waning of appetite for conflict and competition. “Sound and fury signifying nothing” loses its attraction. Presumably the closer you get to death the more you concentrate on things that signify something. You might be less inclined to blow your own horn, which is why, where elders' rights are concerned, other groups must help with the "representation". The American Association of Retired Persons says that less than 1% of American grant money goes to seniors' rights and ageing. In Canada, the federal Ministry of Health did announce another $30 million for brain health research this year. Not much is spent on seniors' equity rights however, or on grants for creative projects in later life.
That seniors should be disabled by younger people’s assumptions and dismissals is an unfair handicap. International Ageism Awareness Day, October 7th, is a good moment to think about it.
