Passion and perseverance and the light turned on

bymitchharvey

202 followers

10 years ago

As I've journeyed through life I did things in somewhat of a robotic manner, you know, just like most, went to work, came home, spent time with family, slept and then up the next day and repeated the routine day after day without giving it much thought or much thought about anything outside of my immediate surroundings. It wasn't until the last several years that I really became aware of some things that really got my attention and that I felt I needed to become involved in. Then I found WA, and the word passion was used repeatedly. As I said, a passion had been developing within for the last several years. Two years ago, I helped to create one of the first organized LGBT groups in the Active Adult community, but I really didn't give it much thought. It wasn't until it made the news and I was recruited to mobilize similar groups and organizations elsewhere did I begin to realize that this was something that had to be done. This was a segment of the population that was being ignored and sometimes avoided, so I began to do what I could.

My passion for this cause continued to grow but it wasn't until I came here that I realized that there's more out there that's being neglected. Primarily learning so much about searching and blogs and SEO's, and taking the time to put this new knowledge in practice, I spent several hours looking for areas that I wanted to learn about, possibly blog about, and gear a website towards. Coming in here, I had already thought about following this passion and even had a site name chosen, but little did I realize that if I do proceed with this idea, I will actually be one of the few existing pioneers.

I am a gay member of the baby boomer generation. I am on the younger end of the generation, but still fall into the category age wise. I'm told that I don't look the part, I don't feel the part, and I certainly don't act the part and I certainly don't think I'm close to calling myself a senior. I'm not eligible for social security yet, I dress in a contemporary style with skinny jeans and Tees, I'm active, I'm social, I travel, I date, enjoy romance, I'll take on any challenge and associate with friends as young as 30's/40's and as old as 60's/70's. I have my share of aches and pains, a few more every year, but I'm far from finished and certainly not ready to give up on anything.

I did some research today, looking for blogs and websites that were geared towards the LGBT community, the Boomer community, and the LGBT Boomer Community. Gladly there were some that came up, but aside from some pretty photos appearing on the home page, if you were looking for inspiration, or anything positive, it doesn't exist. Everything was about preparing for the final years, what to do when you're alone, planning for in home care, walk in tubs, afraid to be alone, just on and on depressing.

Come on people, I can't be the only one above 55 years old that is still living and still has plenty of life left. My conclusion has to be that the only boomers who have decided to join the online social community are the seriously depressed ones. I found very little offering anything positive. If I clicked on sex and dating, "nothing posted yet", learning about new things in the 21st century, "nothing posted yet", but this site had been up for nearly eight years.

There are approximate 80 million Baby Boomers out there, with between 10-15 million of them being part of the LGBT community and yet there's next to nothing positive to find. I read plenty of articles about how the Boomers are the one group who were the worst planners when it come to retirement income, but nothing about helping to solve the problem. I know it's hard to accept that we're getting older, I certainly don't like to acknowledge it, but it happens, so why not make the best of it and try to maintain as much youth and vitality that we can.

My bottom line, I may not be successful, but I'm convinced more now than ever, that my direction has to be toward this segment of our population, in extra income, in living life with entertainment and travel, in buying, having fun, and not just reading about dementia and altzheimers, walk in tubs, etc, Yes that may come to, at some point, but if we make that our only focus, life will certainly be over, much much earlier than if one maintains an upbeat outlook.