Clip #2: The more you know about old age, the better it looks
Before I started this project, I thought I knew what it was going to be like to get old.
- It was definitely not going to be fun (even though I kept enjoying all the milestones I’d been conditioned to dread).
- It was not going to be sexy (even though STD rates among people over 50 are skyrocketing).
- It was going to be hard. (Yes, it’s hard. But not as hard as we’re brainwashed to believe, and many things grow easier.)
- It was going to be lonely. (Not if we have friends of all ages.)
- It was going to be depressing. (In fact, older people enjoy better mental health than younger ones.)
In other words, almost everything I thought I knew about aging was wrong.
Here’s the kicker: study after study shows that people are happiest at the beginnings and the ends of their lives? It’s called the U-curve of happiness. Go ahead google it.
Why don’t people know this stuff? Because of ageism: discrimination that sidelines and silences older people. And unlike racism and sexism, it has barely bleeped onto our radar.
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