Pierce Brosnan, 61
“For many people, 70 is the new 50 and signifies the quiet revolution that has taken place in longevity”
…………….
Among the many trending narratives of the day is the one about Baby Boomers who refuse to age, as if that’s a bad thing.
Would you want to age “gracefully” if you didn’t have to?
Before you answer this question, allow me to put forth my definition of “graceful aging:”
“The process by which a middle-aged male agrees to accept natural physical attrition in exchange for a gated community in Florida.”
In my view [and I’m not alone] this is akin to suicide in slow motion, otherwise known among my circle as the dragging out of the end to eternity until you can’t remember where it all started.
So no.
I don’t know anyone willing to “let go” unless they’re in a psych ward for clinical depression or dying of colon cancer.
An average man who retired in 2012 can expect to live until the age of 86.2 years, while a woman who turned 65 last year would have 23.9 years still to live on average, the ONS estimates.
That’s a lot of time to “drift.”
In my socioeconomic demographic. men are often in the best shape of their adult lives, working out regularly, eating right, getting medical check-ups on an annual basis, and making damn sure their teeth look better than they did when they were in their 20’s, among other things. Believe me, I could go on.
I might also add to this [because it wouldn’t make sense if I didn’t], that most of the men to whom I’m referring are well-educated, urban folk of an upper income variety.
They tend to be ambitious, successful men who carry these traits with them throughout their lives, which are then shaped and molded by the pressures of big city life.
These are not frumpy men in cardigans and distended bellies.
They’re a lot like men half their age, only richer, wiser…and, in some cases, more mature.
They take their health seriously because they would rather go out in a blaze of glory than to fade into irrelevance and obscurity.
Examples in popular culture alone are legion.
Such men don’t lay down for the next generation not only because they’re not finished with their own, but because the generation behind them represents the lion’s share of the women they date and marry.
If this trend continues, and I see no reason it won’t, the next generation will consider a man of 50 “young” and his wife of 25 age-relevant.