What’s it all about?
What are you doing, asked one of my good friends. The words poured out of him in such a way that the only thing missing from the question was the F-word as in, “What the f*** are you doing?” He was talking about this blog. He viewed it as a vanity project at best and a waste of time at worst. His opinion is that between our genes and the guard rails society installs for older people, our destiny is pretty much set. He figures a rapid decline in ability leads to warehousing in long term care followed by death, just call him Mr. Sunshine. But I had to think about my answer for a second. What was I doing with this blog? Why did I start it? What is the point in it? Well, Project 60+ was set in motion by a spin doctor, a soap salesman and a rock star (Add two nuns and a rabbi and this blog will have covered every cliché bar joke). Let me explain.
The PR guy is my dad who, after a successful career, took an early retirement. In fact, he was younger than I am now (61) when he started to wrap it up. He’s 89 and his post-working life has been difficult as over the years he’s had numerous health issues. These health problems have coloured and hampered his retirement and lifestyle. In truth, his situation, at times, has been one of misery. The soap salesman is my father-in-law who is 5 years younger than my dad and up until recently had the goal of shooting his age in golf. He hits the course a couple times a week and while he’s not hitting as far, he is 84, he’s still active and vital. Then I look at a guy who’s five years younger at 79 and he fills stadiums full of adoring fans world-wide. Mick Jagger is ten years younger than my dad but it’s almost like they’re two different species. Mick even had heart surgery a couple years ago but made a rapid, full recovery and was back out on tour in months. Simply remarkable.
So, how do some people manage to stay young, vital, and active while others become frail, immobile, and sickly? When I look at my dad, my father-in-law and Mick Jagger then consider the big elements that make a difference in one’s life, they were all on equal footing. They were all born in the west and had access to clean water, good nutrition, medicine, sanitation, education, and employment. These are the “big” elements that help create a healthy, prosperous life. They’re the elements that are missing in most third world countries and as such the quality of life and life expectancy are lower.
So, if the playing field was relatively level, why has my dad aged poorly in comparison to Mick? (Hell, my dad’s aged poorly compared to Keith and that’s saying something). Furthermore, am I destined to follow in his footsteps because of genetics or are there things I can do to have the moves like Jagger (Rule: you can’t have a blog about Dad without a “dad” joke). Honestly, I want to be like Mick who, for hours a night, tears around on an 80’ stage belting out the hits rather than my dad who’d need his scooter to cross the same stage. Some of the brightest minds in science are working to unravel the mysteries of aging, surely, they’ve come up with something that will keep me out of diapers and dementia free. What are the things I can do today that will keep me active, healthy, and vital for the back half of my life? Is it exercise or attitude? Diet or lifestyle? What about my social and spiritual life? Or is successful aging a combo of all of them (Maybe we can bundle healthy aging and get a good discount to boot?).
Through research, I’ve already discovered that we’re not all doomed by our genes and that there is plenty we can do right now to keep active, vital, and sharp through our 80’s and beyond. This is what Project 60+ is all about. It’s discovering and understanding what we can do today to live as well as we can for as long as we can – it’s increasing our health span and hopefully our life span in the process. The catch is, we must act when we’re in our 50’s & 60’s so that we can hit our 80’s and beyond like Jumpin’ Jack Flash! (It’ll be a gas, gas, gas – promise) So, I hope you’ll join me on this journey and together we’ll figure out this aging thing. After all, I don’t want to follow the same playbook as my parents’ generation. So please keep track and subscribe to these posts through the website, mailing list, YouTube channel, Facebook, and Instagram accounts. Go ahead be a teenager again and act like a groupie, subscribe to them all! I guarantee you’ll learn something and we’re going to have some laughs in the process. Remember the goal is to stay young while growing old!