Aging and time-binding in the twenty-first century.

THE CONCEPT of "time" has a wide range of meanings and is applied to highly diverse settings. For example, prisoners serve time, musicians mark time, idlers pass time, referees call time, historians record time, and score keepers keep time (Greenberg, 1990). The Scriptures maintain that "to everything there is a season - a time to be born, and a time to die, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to love and a time to hate ... "(Ecclesiastes, 3). Thus, time is assigned to a specific task or a predetermined event in accordance with a specific purpose. This article will explore different ideas related to how seniors can improve the way they spend time and maximize their positive impact on the next generation -- in other words, how seniors can become better time-binders.

An Aging Society -- Socio-Demographic Trends and Time-Binding Opportunities

The general semantics formulation, time-binding, concerns our human ability to use language and other symbols to store and pass on knowledge, so that each new generation can benefit from earlier discoveries and start from where the previous generation left off. The concept of time-binding has assumed special significance in view of the unprecedented expansion of the aging population. Demographic forecasts predict that the aging population will continue to increase significantly in the twenty-first century. America is steadily growing older as more people are living longer and more are celebrating their centenarian birthdays. It is predicted that by 2030, one out of every five persons (20%) will be over 60 years old (Hooyman and Kiyak, 1996). Moreover, as the 75 million "baby boomers" who were born between 1946 and 1964 "come of age," the number of older persons will significantly increase into what has been described as an "age wave" and a "gerontocracy."

Another significant demographic trend is the increase of multi-generational families, which may include four- and five-generation families. This growing phenomenon is a consequence of extended longevity, in addition to higher divorce rates and remarriages, since the longer the members of a particular generation live on, the more likely it is that they will be living among subsequent generations. Consequently, opportunities for time-binding will multiply as younger and older generations engage in time-sharing.

In our post-industrial (or post-modern) society research no longer focuses exclusively on the pathology associated with aging, nor exclusively on what is possible despite aging. It also investigates what is possible because of aging, given the potential and opportunity for creativity during the advanced years. There is no denial of the "problems" that occur in later life. However, research is focusing more on the possibilities, the strengths, and the opportunities of inter-generational sharing.

Longevity has heralded a new era of shared opportunities for intergenerational time-binding. Older volunteers are engaged as readers and storytellers in elementary schools, as career counselors and tutors in high schools, and as associates in colleges. Older and younger volunteers share hours of community service in local neighborhoods as well as in health facilities. Children are teaching English to their newly arrived ethnic grandparents and they provide instruction in computer science to their parents. Grandparents are increasingly assuming responsibility for childcare in working families as well as in homes of divorced parents. The proverbial "empty nest" is intermittently filled with adult children returning to live with aging parents or grandparents. These time-sharing experiences provide transmission of inter-generational values and culture that extend beyond the lifetime of individual family members.

Cultural Attitudes Toward Aging

In various traditional societies such as Asian and Biblical cultures, older persons tend to be regarded with reverence, and are often respected as "visionaries" and "persons of wisdom" in the transmission of culture from generation to generation. In contrast to these positive and respected roles of older persons, a bias against aging persists in our modem society, which Robert Butler (1969), renowned geriatrician, identified as "ageism." This type of negativism and rejection of older persons is based on a form of social discrimination and prejudice against older adults. Ageism stems from a belief that aging causes people to become dysfunctional and incapable of productive work and retraining. While current legislation formally prohibits age discrimination, ageism tends to persist in subtle as well as in overt situations.

One society's response to ageism has been the development of a vast multimillion dollar industry that is aimed at helping people "look younger" and to "melt away the years" with the aid of face lifts, miracle diets, liposuction operations, hair restoration, extensive and expensive "anti-aging" cosmetics, and countless devices and remedies to "restore that youthful image" (Hooyman, 1996).

A Look at Labeling

Benjamin Franklin wisely observed, "What signifies knowing the names if you know not the 'nature of things?"' How we determine and label who is "old" seems problematic and contradictory. In observing nature, one does not necessarily refer to natural processes as "aging." We do not say a sunflower grows older. We can say that it "ripens," it drops its seeds, and the cycle goes on within the "ripening process." Therefore, might we call the process of humans moving through time a process of "ripening"? (Bergen, 1997)

There is no shortage of terms used to describe older persons. Some generally acceptable terms refer to older adults as "retirees," "senior citizens," "golden agers," and "pensioners." However, other labels can carry a sharp sting, for example, "geezer," "old hen," "fossil," or "old fogey." A new set of descriptions has evolved that tends to view older persons as "cool," and "really with it." We also see more commercial images of well-tanned older people who play tennis, dance, jog, work out or lift weights, and are "sexually active."

The degree of aging of older persons may also be assessed by one's capacity to operate with various degrees of bodily movement, as identified in the "go-go theory of aging." The initial "go-go" condition ma over time become "go slow," followed by "slow go," "cannot go," and eventually "no (Shore, 1998). And how about the value-laden, controversial term that labels older adults as "chronologically gifted"?

Beyond Categorizing the Human Life Span

Traditionally, the span of a lifetime has been divided into a variety of sequential time periods. For example, in Shakespeare's play, As You Like It, Jacques declares, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women are merely players." After describing six discrete stages within a lifetime, Jacques concludes, "the last scene of all ends with second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."

Within the human life span, sequential periods of time may traditionally be identified as "childhood," "adolescence," "adulthood," and "old age." Psychology Professor G. Stanley Hall (1922) invented the term "senescence" to identify the years of later life. Hall held that society is on the point of crisis because of the forthcoming demographic certainty that persons will live longer and retire earlier than their forebears. Hall claimed that the result of this newly anticipated longevity will cause society to suffer from "boredom and unproductivity." As early as 1922, Hall rejected the so-called Scriptural life span of "three-score and ten years" and prophetically proclaimed that society should enable mature persons to plan at least twenty more years of meaningful involvement (Cole, 1992).

In view of the extended longevity we are currently experiencing, many older persons may be seriously concerned about the meaningful and satisfying use of so-called "free time" or "leisure time." In Moody's book, The Abundance of Life (1988), the author laments the voids and discontent that can be inherent in "the abundance of time" for many older adults. Moody suggests that to engage in life more meaningfully, we abandon the "linear life plan," which assigns specific tasks to fixed time periods, such as education and training in youth; work and employment in the middle years; and undefined "leisure and comfort" in later life. Moody endorses the "cyclical life plan," which involves reduced schooling and training during youth, more flexible retirement plans, and more options for education, work, employment, and leisure throughout one's adult life. In other words, Moody's advice is to "throw away the traditional clock" with its fixed time periods for specific tasks, and thereby enjoy a more flexible and rewardin g life (Moody, 1988).

According to psychoanalyst Eric Erikson, the blueprint of human emotional development throughout life is summarized with the "Eight Stages of Man." Erikson suggests that life unfolds in eight stages of emotional growth, each one featuring a key emotional issue or developmental task that builds on each of the prior stages and establishes the foundation for continued emotional growth.

Erikson mapped out the psycho-social issues for infancy, early childhood, school age, adolescence, and young and mature adulthood. The key issues in the remaining two stages within a lifetime are the achievement of generativity over stagnation, and ego integrity over despair. Generativity involves a sense of care and concern for future generations rather than stagnation in the past. If we resolve all the earlier tasks of adulthood, and if we succeed in looking outside ourselves and caring for others through generativity, we may move to the final stage of ego integrity. This stage is aimed at establishing a sense of meaning in one's life, rather than having feelings of despair or bitterness that one's life has been wasted and unfulfilled.

Creativity and Aging

Accomplishments of persons in their later years are well-known and usually earn public acclaim. Creativity, as a powerful inner resource, may find expression in the early decades of the twenties and thirties within one's lifetime. However, the ability to be creative and contribute to the culture may actually peak in the later years. A book by Dr. G. D. Cohen, The Creative Age, is filled with references to older persons who have been highly creative in their advanced years. For example, Michaelangelo painted the striking frescoes in the Vatican chapel at the age of eighty-nine. Benjamin Franidin invented the bifocal lens when he was seventy-eight, and Frank Lloyd Wright completed the Guggenheim Museum when he was ninety-one years old. At the age of 104, a retired teacher, Sarah Delany, collaborated with her 102-year-old sister, Dr. Bessie Delany, a retired dentist, to write a book titled Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years. This book became a New York Times bestseller and subsequently, a Broadw ay hit.

These impressive accomplishments of older persons, which are highly lauded and applauded by the public, are referred to by Dr. Cohen as exemplifying the "Big C" in Creativity. As a psychiatrist and geriatrician, Cohen maintains that while the "Big C" is applicable to the creativity of selected older persons who have gained well-deserved recognition, the "little c" in creativity is universally applicable to "all" older adults in their personal lives. Cohen argues convincingly that "every" older person is capable of discovering his or her own creativity, be it a choice of a hobby, a new career, arts and crafts, new relationships, revitalized interests, a challenging new job, or involvement in volunteerism. Cohen's premise is that "all" older persons are endowed with the human urge for creativity. The experience of advanced years provides a unique combination of creativity and life experiences that promotes a dynamic dimension for inner growth. Cohen refers to creativity as "an equal opportunity," which does no t belong solely to the acclaimed artist's domain. He concedes that health complications are part of life for many older people, and that the risk of disabilities increases with age. However, he asserts that the creative spirit can find expression despite such obstacles (p.14). Cohen insists that the more mature years yearn for "something more" than the quantity of time. It is the desire for a "quality of time." As another writer on creativity says, instead of the lament of being "over the hill," the universal challenge for creative expression in life is the tantalizing prospect that "there is another peak to climb" (Czikszentmihalyi, 1996).

Aging and Time-Binding in the Twenty-First Century

With increased longevity, and the chance to be creative in advanced age, older persons have an opportunity to become more valuable time-binders, contributing to a richer and more advanced human culture. Society and individuals can help older persons take that opportunity by encouraging them to engage in creative pursuits and to interact more with younger people. Such efforts would be beneficial to all parties involved and, barring catastrophic events, make the twenty-first century the most notable so far in the history of human time-binding.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Bergen, M. (1997). A sage by any other name. Aging and the human spirit. Vol. 7, No. 1, pp.4-5.

Butler, R. N. (1969). Ageism: another form of bigotry. The Gerontologist, pp.243-246.

Cohen, G. D. (2000). The creative age: awakening human potential in the second half of life. NY: Harper Collins.

Cole, T. R. (1992). The journey of life: a cultural history of aging in America. Cambridge, MA: The Cambridge University Press.

Czikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. Chapter 9, Creative Aging. NY: Harper Collins.

Delaney, S. and B. Delaney (1996). Having our say: the Delaney sisters' first 100 years. New York, Dell.

Eastman, R. M. (1997). The ends of time.

Erikson, E. H. (1982). The life cycle completed a review. NY: Norton.

Greenberg, S. (1990). Words to live by: selected writings of Rabbi S. Greenberg. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson Inc.

Hooyman, N. & Kiyak, H. A. (1996). Social gerontologist: a multidisciplinary perspective. Nordham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Kodish, S. P. & Kodish, B. I. (1993). Drive yourself sane! using the uncommon sense of general semantics. Englewood, NJ: Institute of General Semantics.

Levinson, R. W. (2002). New routes to human services: information and referral. NY: Springer.

Moody, H. R. (1988). Abundance of life: human development policies for an aging society. NY: Columbia University Press.

Shore, H. (1998). Going, giving, and growing. Aging and the Human Spirit. Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 8-9.

RISHA W. LEVINSON, DSW *

* Dr. Risha W. Levinson's book, New Routes to Human Services: Information and Referral, was published in 2002 by Springer Publishing Company, New York.