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I posted this in the Books forum, but thought this group might enjoy this book even more. I am currently reading This Chair Rocks - A Manifesto Against Ageism by Ashton Applewhite. I first learned about this book from someone who was commenting about the story of Lady Gaga helping Liza Minelli at the Oscars earlier this year. I don't usually take book recommendations from random strangers (present company excepted!), but am very happy that I followed up on this one.
The author dispels many of the myths about aging and "olders" in an interesting and light-hearted way. Its witty and straightforward and hopeful which most of what we hear about aging is NOT.
"Ageism is a prejudice against our own future selves and has the dubious distinction of being the only "ism" related to a universal condition. It takes root in denial that we're going to get old. That we are aging. Its hallmark is the irrational insistence that older people are Other, not US - not even a future us - and we go to great lengths to distance ourselves from that future state"
The ONE thing we ALL are doing at the same time from the moment we are born (or one could argue from the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg) is: getting older.
And each day we get a day older...and less "useful".
It's a shame the only major reward for growing older is...death.
Because once we cease to be useful we are no longer of any value.
The only thing that bothers me about ageism is the belief that older people are lying about the perceived qualities of life. before there was TV and plastic and pizza.
I didn't realize how bad it was, until about 2000 when I was talking to an AA girl, goood student, who literally did not know that blacks were segregated at buses and movies and water fountains. The past is systematically sealed off from the future. As if young and old are segregated today.
In fact, I bet a lot of readers are asking, what was an old man like me even doing, talking to a 16-yo girl?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Not specific to only ageism, but an interesting topic and book. (More focused on eldercare) More of a reference book, not read like a novel / story (See reviews).
What Are Old People For?: How Elders Will Save the World– January 1, 2004
by William H. Thomas (Author)
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