Reframing Our Views on Aging
Hibiscus in Motherhouse gardens.Turning 75 years old this year was a significant milestone for me. After all, that meant I had been alive three quarters of a century! I have already lived longer than anyone else did in my immediate family.
While my friends outside of the convent have been retired for several years, I still have a full-time ministry as a Sister of St. Joseph, one which I enjoy, but do not plan on continuing indefinitely. I look forward to retiring one day.
An article from the National Religious Retirement Office, sponsor of the Retirement Fund for Religious, in its Engaging Aging newsletter of Summer 2024, contained some facts about aging and ageism that I found thought-provoking. Written by Sister Imelda Maurer, a Sister of Divine Providence from San Antonio, Texas, “Reframing and Honoring Our Aging” challenges readers to grow in awareness of the negative perception of aging in our Western culture, and to realize that positive beliefs about aging can lengthen one’s life span.
Sister Maurer begins the article with a quote from Dr. Louise Aronson, geriatrician and author of Elderhood: “Our culture has given us messages from early childhood that aging, even though we are all doing it all our lives, is bad, that old is ugly and that (personal) evolution over a lifetime is evidence of failure.”
“What is unique about the harm of ageism is that it has been normalized in our society,” writes Sister Maurer. “Since we are unaware of our implicit biases, she adds, we have greater difficulty in recognizing stereotypical attitudes which can lead to actions of ageist discrimination.”
“Our task is to become more aware of the unexamined ageist beliefs we have internalized and to unlearn them, but this is not easy, “ Sister Maurer states.
Hydrangea bloom in Motherhouse gardens.Here are a couple of examples of ageism in action provided in the article:
“Two friends meet after a long absence. One is welcomed with the expression, ‘You haven’t changed a bit!’ or ‘You haven’t aged a day!’ Clearly, the hidden implication is that aging is bad. Old is bad.”
“Upon learning our age, someone may remark, ‘Well, you certainly don’t look your age.’ It is meant as a compliment, and if we take it as such, it says we have internalized the ageist myth that growing older is negative.”
Bush daisies in Motherhouse gardens.
Sister Maurer states that the negative myths we have heard about aging since early childhood are not true. She cites Dr. Gene Cohen who wrote in The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain, that one reason for aging negativity is the fact that until the recent past, research dealing with older adults was always deficit-based. As a result, she says, aging was viewed and dealt with as a problem.
Aging, says the article, is a multifaceted phenomenon that starts at conception and continues throughout our life. We are so much more than merely our physical bodies.
Life-span development theory states that there is the possibility of growth and development throughout the life cycle, including the last part of life. At the end of the article Sister Maurer encourages readers to develop “a counter-cultural view of aging, reflecting our belief that life at every stage is good, ‘very good.’ (Gen. 1:31)”
White gazania in Motherhouse gardens.