by Karolyn Hart

I remember when I was growing up their was a hit show called ‘Thirty-Something’. At the time, the actors were my parent’s age and being a kid all I knew is that they were old…like my parents.  I laugh now thinking about this but then again I thought teenagers were ‘old’.

I had a conversation with a couple of girlfriends about that show. I mean no disrespect to the actors but it seems to me that those ‘thirty-somethings’ look like today’s ‘fifty-somethings’. What’s even more amazing is those actors reunited a couple of years ago and they looked the same (or can I even say better) then they did in the 80’s. (Check out the photo of them reunion!) How is that possible?

Well besides the obvious plastic surgery that was done (yes they had some) there is something greater at play.  It’s not just Hollywood actors! It’s my fifty-year old neighbour who runs marathons and just had a baby.  Now I realize that’s rather extreme and I’ve met enough fifty-somethings who have told me they would never want to deal with a newborn at their age. Yet,  there was a day when she would be making headlines.  Now it’s a passing moment of interest, a shrug of the shoulder, and nothing more.

Through speaking with the Boomers in my life and reading a few articles I realized this generation is giving us all a wonderful gift. Just as they have done with every major life stage boomers are transforming and changing it into something radically different.

Now the idea of embracing aging is not something that Boomers can claim is an original idea.  There is a group of people that live just outside of Japan on the island of Okinawa that holds the claim as the best place on earth for healthy aging. In fact, they have more people over the age of 100 years old than anywhere else in the world.  They do it better than anyone else but what is changing here in North America is that as Boomers approached aging they didn’t like the stereotypes that came with it. So, like every other major life event - they simply decided to reinvent it.

Consider this, I am now a thirty-something that has been married coming up on 13 years. I’ve had a mortgage for 12 years and I’ve had a full-time career for almost 15 years.  If this were the 80’s I’d be expected to be approaching my mid-life crisis shortly. Instead, the message I continually receive is that I have my best years ahead of me. How incredible is that? Dare I say it?  In this new world, I am still considered young.  I say bring it!

There are other changes that have happened as well.  Changes that are  brilliantly healthy and keep us young at heart. Gone are the days where women are expected to look like moms when they have children.  I had one women share with me that when she was raising her children she was chastised for taking time from “mothering” to go to the gym.  Her social group considered her vain and questioned her priorities because she’d dare to leave her children to invest in herself.

Today, every women understands the wisdom in taking care of their bodies physically. The health and energy it brings not only makes for happy mommy’s but that in turn brings a level of energy into parenting that is definitely positive.

It’s so positive that it’s even changing one of the shallowest cities in all the world - Hollywood. In the cut throat business of entertainment nobody thought anything about telling actresses over forty that their time had ‘ahem’ come and gone.  NOW it’s a whole different story. The list of forty-something actresses that are actively engaged and in demand is long. I did a Google and was shocked to learn just how many are 40+.  The list? Julia Roberts, Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman, Heather Locklear,  Kelly Preston, Salma Hayek, Sandra Bullock, Demi Moore, Courteney Cox, Teri Hatcher, Lucy Liu, and Elizabeth Hurley to name a few.

All these actresses can thank the Boomer generation for the longevity of their careers.  Boomers are sending a message that 40 isn’t old and you can bet that trend will continue as Boomers continue to redefine “old”.

Personally, I just want to thank Boomers for changing the way we look at aging.  It’s a new thing for North America and I think it’s been long in coming.  We still have a long way to learn what the Okinawans have known for generations but thanks to the Boomers we’ve just taken a healthy step in the right direction!

Filed under: Author Karolyn, Spring Chick