Today’s LA Times cited symptoms of “ageism” during this dang CoVID experience.
In open disclosure, and with my sample size of “uno” – I have not observed amped up frustrations by youngers about us elders or me. Yet:
“Ageism has been quietly pervasive in American culture for decades, … this particular form of discrimination has become magnified during the pandemic as those who have lost income and stability look for someone to blame.”
Ouch. Let’s forego blame, and seek better times together with our movement. It is not just elders who are being protected by this clampdown. Young folks also get sick and perish; some [sadly] without classic markers of susceptibility. You may have read that men of broader adult ages are more susceptible than women. And African Americans may have higher CoVID mortality. And air pollution may be a factor. We face so much we don’t know about this societal calamity, for now. Even after that magical vaccine is deployed, boomers will likely face societal undercurrents, as a LA Geriatrician called “toxic and misguided pitting of generations.”
That is literally the pits!
via GIPHY
Granted, some “OK, Boomer” cheeky currents may be valid. Yes, I’ve talked about things “back in my day” to nice folks in Generations X, Y(Millenials) and Z. Yet, my parents and grandparents said similar things to me. I’ll wager, two-score years from now, that today’s young people will share similar sayings or perceptions. Sentiments can smell, if we let them get that way. A NY Times article from last October offered,
“Rising inequality, unaffordable college tuition, political polarization exacerbated by the internet, and the climate crisis all fuel anti-boomer sentiment.”
Forbes magazine suggested [and I agree] that that last thing we boomers should let loose is “OK, Zoomer” with our own protesting cheeky meme for them who “don’t get it” or don’t resonate with “because I said so…”.
What we know is that generations in lasting cultures should be interdependent. Vital boomers do proffer experience, context, and possibly wisdom to help our “less chronologically challenged” face this wacky world. Just ask Dan Buettner!
Here is hope that “we” can be open and converse to work things out in bad times and in good ones, too.
Let me circle back to CoVID risk factors, age, and getting through challenges together.
Age, in my opinion, is not a unitary truth for us (above age 65) and our significantly higher CoVID death rate numbers and percentages. Immunity factors and pre-existing conditions for segments in our general population are also salient considerations.
I can’t turn back my Medicare-aged years or reverse sands through my own hourglass. Yet I can improve my immunity prospects (as I posted previously) with these five vital habits:
1. sleep, 2. sunlight, 3. aerobic exercise to boost pulmonary fitness, 4. a positive spin on countering this “Suck” and 5. anti-inflammatory eating.
I hope that many individuals and groups are doing likewise to mitigate viral risk factors!
Our Movement to promote thriving and striving into our Nineties is intergenerational by its nature. Be strong, powerful, harmonious. Together. Who knows? Kumbaya may “represent strength and power in togetherness and harmony as it once did”.
df
Recent Comments