This year, I turned 50. I don’t know about the rest of you, but that number was a wakeup call for me. My mother was dead by the age of 51, so I started thing more about what it means to get older, fears of death, and the privilege of getting older.
I’m not going to lie about it; aging scares me. I’m worried about what will happen to my body on a biological level, about how I’ll age. I’m worried, too, about how people will perceive me as I age. For centuries, women especially have been expected to become invisible as we aged. But, importantly, even though I’m terrified of the process, I want to accept the inevitable fact that I will age (and so will you) and learn to appreciate this stage of my life.
And that’s what this new book is about - it’s a journey toward radical acceptance of my aging self.
I hope you’ll join me as I dive into the history of aging (how long have we been concerned about getting older), the science behind aging (from telemeres and DNA to nutrition and exercise), the culture of aging (and how different societies approach getting older and think about the elderly), the politics and economics of aging (for the first time ever, we’re going to have as many people over 65 as those 18 and under in the USA), and the personal stories of people who are going through the process of getting older now (and really, that’s ALL of us).