Old age ain’t for sissies

Written by Joe Pisani
Thursday, 28 January 2010 01:00

Now that baby boomers from Bill Clinton to Bruce Springsteen — and let’s not forget Hillary Clinton and Mick Jagger — are plodding into their senior years, there’s a lot of soul-searching about growing old, as if no one ever did it before.

There are movies and books and how-to guides about the perils and pitfalls and joys of aging — there must be a few joys, right?

Meryl Streep, who succeeded Diane Keaton as the poster girl of graceful aging, recently appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, glamorously air-brushed and exulting, “I’m 60, and I’m playing the romantic lead! Bette Davis is rolling over in her grave!” Poor Bette Davis.

In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges plays a washed-up, grizzled country star looking for redemption. In It’s Complicated, Ms. Streep and Alec Baldwin are a divorced couple looking for redemption. No wait, they’re just looking for a fling or two. And in Nine, Daniel Day-Lewis plays a director going through a midlife crisis, looking for redemption and creative expression. Or maybe he’s just looking for understanding from the women in his life.

Then, there’s Anne Tyler’s novel, Noah’s Compass, about a fellow going through a crisis at 60, looking for — he couldn’t possibly be looking for redemption?

Baby boomers are navel-gazing again, just like in the 60s when we were struggling to “find ourselves.” I guess we never did. The search continues.

If the movies and memoirs weren’t enough, there’s also a surge in self-help guides about longevity and how to live to 100. My father-in-law always told me, “The first 100 years are the hardest,” but not according to these books. Best-seller lists are trumpeting titles like The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest and Younger Next Year: Turn Back Your Biological Clock.

My favorites are 50 Secrets of the World’s Longest Living People and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Secrets of Longevity for idiots who need to be reminded smoking can kill you and Big Macs will add pounds but not years to your life.

We’ve convinced ourselves 60 is the new 40, or is it the new 30? But people barely lived past 49 a century ago, so it’d be wise to remember Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words: “It is not the length of life, but the depth of life.”

Many of us are afraid to grow old, but if it’s any consolation, you are not alone. The elderly population is about to hit 49 million as America’s 76 million Baby Boomers create an “age wave,” and by the middle of the century, the number of people 65 and older will double.

There’s anxiety everywhere — in beauty salons, in fitness centers, in doctors’ offices, in the Social Security Administration and in the aisles of Sephora. The face of America is changing and Botox can’t hide it.

Poor Bette Davis may not have gotten the romantic lead in later life, but she knew what she was talking about when she grumbled, “Old age ain’t for sissies.”

Joe Pisani has been a writer and editor for 30 years. Questions or comments, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .