A few years ago, I started hearing funny noises. At first, I couldn’t tell what they were, but as they grew closer and more frequent, I finally figured it out: It was the sound of doors closing behind me. I am getting older, and I am coming to understand what that means. Where once life’s opportunities seemed limitless, I know now that they are gradually and inexorably being curtailed. I am never going to be a test pilot, or a drummer in a rock and roll band, or a cop.
Now, there are some perfectly good reasons why I never did these things that have nothing to do with age. A deathly fear of heights, a total lack of coordination, and an unfortunate tendency to cause trouble rather than put a stop to it have been with me since childhood. Still, until fairly recently, it always seemed like there was a chance I might try them someday. The change in prospects is not a calamity, but it is something I have to accept, and that can be a little hard.
The process of becoming an old person is not looking to be simple or easy, either. Aside from the physical changes we tend to notice first, there are financial, emotional, bureaucratic, social, and cultural challenges to contend with. And just when I think I have come to grips with the whole messy business, something comes along that throws it all into question again: Last Christmas, for instance, my husband presented me with an electric bass guitar.
Was that a door I heard creaking open?
The May issue of Public Opinion Pros reflects some of the complexities of aging in America. Our lead story, by Will Lester, takes a look at the evolution of public opinion, and, particularly, elder opinion, toward the Medicare prescription drug program. If ever there was an issue that demonstrates the many ramifications of growing old, it is this one. As it touches upon the medical, financial, and political dimensions of this new benefit, the article conveys simultaneously seniors’ helplessness in the face of looming medical expenses and their strength as a voting constituency, as well as pollsters’ uncertainties as to what senior opinion will mean to Republican and Democratic fortunes in the midterm elections this fall.
On another front, we have a rather cheering feature by Linda L. Fisher on the sex lives of the baby boomer and pre-boomer generations. Some of the findings tend to confirm common assumptions we hold about sexuality and our attitudes toward sex in later life; others may surprise you. Finally, in this month’s report “from the field,” Judith T. Lynch and colleagues describe the results of an experiment in mail survey design showing how a few simple and inexpensive changes to a printed questionnaire can improve the quality of data collected from older respondents.
On other subjects, we present the final installment of Tom Smith’s three-part series on the Memory of the Holocaust study. Our “In Print” department features an excerpt from a soon to be published study on Americans’ political engagement by Cliff Zukin and coauthors; and a new column by Stephen Earl Bennett, “From the Heartland,” has its debut.
We all have to get old—those of us who are lucky enough to get to that point, that is. Some days, it is hard to escape the reminders of advancing age, and the thought of what inevitably comes at the end of it. But as the articles in this month’s POP suggest, despite the excesses of a youth-crazed society that threatens to marginalize us as we age, there is still life to be lived and an important role to be played by senior generations.
I, for one, have taken to sitting on the rug with my new bass, playing along with Queen. At times like these I can forget about the dilemmas of wearing contact lenses versus glasses versus reading glasses, about my slowing reactions when I drive and the frighteningly youthful appearance of my physician, about my increasing tendency to lose touch with popular culture. Like everyone else, I will have to continue learning how to cope with the changes time brings and the concessions I will have to make to the toll taken by its passage.
But, as survey research is making quite evident, though aging is a part of life it doesn’t have to be all there is to it; and for those twenty minutes or so before my knees lock and the kids have to come pick me up off the floor, I am so groovy.
—Lisa Ferraro Parmelee, Editor |
