Are you over 50? - Then you must read this.
You are here to read what I want to tell you - and are you over 50, right?
Yes or no: it is this kind of question I want to talk about. Classifying people through their age, and even worse: judging people because of their age is now recognized as AGEISM.
The -isms we are dealing with
Probably you are aware that often old people are ridiculed and treated like silly old pieces of furniture which need regular maintenance. Or women over 40/50 are considered not desirable while young women are. Or, on the other side, kids cannot do many things, even if they are fully capable. I heard the story of a 14 year old with a flourishing internet business who cannot have a bank account on his name. Well, things like this are now called AGEISM, recognized lately after SEXISM and RACISM, but in its own right as important as those.
WA and the freedom of age
Many people here in WA are older, in retirement or planning retirement and they are entering the third half of their lives, hoping to be able to do something useful. And they can feel safe to do so without being ridiculed with words like „in HIS/HER Age……“. The internet allows us to not reveal our age - until we reveal it ourselves.
CONSCIOUS AGEING
At this point I want to let you know that we are planning a 5 month series of conversations around age and ageism in the Wisdom Factory. called CONSCIOUS AGEING. We will start with Ashton Applewhite, an author and activist in fighting against the discrimination of people because of their age. She lately talked at the UN about her concepts and what needs to be done, privately, but first of all by the Government and the official structures handling older age like hospitals, retirement centers, nurseries and so on.
The CONSCIOUS AGEING series is completely free, you can participate live or watch the replays. Thanks to WA I am able now to build the websites, the program and the pages for the single speakers in the Wisdom Factory dot net website. This made a big difference to what I experienced in the preparations and running of our last series about relationships. The stress level is much lower!
This is my progress report for the 3 months I am here, I am happy about that and I hope we can help you with this series to approach age and ageing in a new way; to increase awareness of belief systems, expectations and the power we have to change many of the things which seem inevitable, - just because we never questioned them!
If you are interested, come over to the website, and please share the news of this opportunity with your friends who could be interested in the topic.
After all, everybody is ageing, beginning with the day of our birth!
Recent Comments
59
Thank you all for responding. And yes, with age we have the chance to become wise - and at least we have a lot of experience to count on! I hope to see you in our series!
Heidi
Hi Heidi,
This is such a good and appropriate subject to cover, as there seems to be a lot of people in their autumn years here,
me being one of them.
On one hand they tell you, your not old at such and such an age and then tell you, you can't do that because of your age, so which is it? As the saying goes....your only as old as you feel!
By the way Heidi I visited your site a couple of days ago and found it very interesting.
Sandra
Sandra, thanks a lot! we will do our best to shed light on the ageing topic from as many perspectives as possible. There are also some speakers under 40, so what WE would call YOUNG. It is all a question of perspective!
Thanks for the feedback to the site. I hope we will see you in our audience!
Heidi
and to think I was once the youngest person in the world...
It a good thing you're involved in there, Heidi! :)
Great work Heidi. Will check it out. Fast approaching the entry level, no harm in being prepared ahead of time. Well done.
I will be approaching 70 year and I intend to live my life disgracefully it's my right as a senior citizen
See more comments
I am 62 and still making good decisions. Irv.
Hey Irvine, you just answered me in "ageist" ways. The "STILL" is the word! Come over and watch the first show with Ashton Applewhite about Ageism - and how we, ourselves, are ageists without even noticing it!