Aesthetics for Seniors or PLEASE PAINT MY WORLD YELLOW!

I read an article written by a young woman about her grandmother's last years.  Grandma was living in a nursing home or some other institutionalized environment.  The question the young woman was exploring touched a nerve for me.  She could not understand why it was so hard to go and visit her grandmother and talk to her.  I think she wrote the piece so she could come to grips with her grief and guilt.  One could see that she felt it should not be so hard to spend some time with a person you love.

What caught my interest specifically was the paragraph about the appearance of the place her grandmother lived.  Wall were painted that institutional color that sucks all the light of halls and room.  Uncombed hair and a room devoid of personal effects left the young woman feeling alone and slightly afraid in the presence of this loved one. I wondered how others related to this same situation.

Bring life into our life!

Then I paid a short visit to a website calle "Aging in Place" where Patrick Roden writes.  The article Dr. Roden wrote about sex in the nursing home just jumped from the page.  He spoke about ridicule from the staff, loss of privacy, single beds...not a place that encourages what older people need more than anything else.  Human touch.  But the institutions didn't take the beauty of their patients and their situation into account.  Even an old person is more beautiful when they are clean and perfumed.  A hug is easier to give in such a case.

I was taken back to a concept I discovered several month ago that dealt with the importance of aesthetics in the life of the older person.  The name of this blog betrays my belief in the importance I place on the beauty of the things that surround me.

In all of this time I had never once thought about my family or friends and how the appearance of the place where we live might influence their willingness to visit and stay a while.  Young people are not aware of why they don't want to come but could it possibly be that even the color of the paint on the walls is important? Dr. Roden thinks that the "aging in place" concept supports the humanity of the elderly.  It is not only the size of the beds and the privacy a home allows.  It is a sanctuary for the whole family.   It is a good argument for in home care and all that "home" means to the family that makes such arrangements.

As a young senior in good health, I with my husband have moved into a house that is on one level, wheel chair friendly with access to the outdoors and lots of light.  We even have enough room for a live in helper.  We are making this home as beautiful a possible so we can enjoy the years to come surrounded by an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere.  Hopefully, it will serve us well for many many years to come.

And yes, we are painting some of the rooms yellow.  I just thought you would want to know.

Be well!

b

Related articles

• Opinion: How Medicare Fails the Elderly (nytimes.com)
• Making our house a home! (retireinstyleblog.com)

Good News...life on Venus is wonderful! 50 is the new 40!

Is 50 the new 40?
I have some good news!!! I just read a blog today with the title Fifty is the New Forty.  See what I mean.  This good right?  If 50 is the new 40 then 80 must be the new 65.  Statistics and numbers can mean anything so why not?  What do you think?

For a woman like me that can remember when being over 30 made you the enemy and old,  benchmarks like 50+ have taken on a new meaning.  Perhaps in my world 50 is the new 30.  We are, in fact remaining healthy vital active people for a very long, long time.  I will be 70 in November.  I just finished cataract surgery and can see better than I ever have.  I have resolved that, since it looks like I am going to live a long time, I am going to take Aubrey de Grey's advice and keep my body as strong as my mental age.

I believe that most of outcomes in our life are a result of self-prophecy.  For example, when you go to work and your pencil breaks, you can do two things.  You can sharpen the pencil.  Or you can say "Oh this is going to be one of those days." put the pencil in the garbage and spend the rest of the day blundering around with no pencil.  It is all a matter of what you visualize coming down the pike.  I believe that when people talk and visualize their retirement they should be realistic and upbeat.  The retirement self-prophecy will be what you make of it.

Women in the baby boomer generation are very influential and they will be the ones that change everyone perception about what aging will look.  They are shaping the "self prophecy" for women approaching old age.  That too is very good news.  More of these women are educated and working at pursuits that satisfy them than woman of my generation.  As a result, we are seeing more and more positive, encouraging blogs, websites and magazines designed for the 50+ crowd. The successful positive women are more visible than ever.  At my age I benefit from all those things.  I love More magazine,  Fab Over Fifty website. Advanced Style Blog and even all the things that AARP has to offer now. The world of the aging female is expanding in size and importance.

In our 70's and still loving bling!

I read somewhere that women do indeed live on Venus...even in retirement.  The 50+ woman is taking care of business but they are talking about living. Male bloggers are more focused on work related subjects and financial concerns.  Like women have done for so many generation, they keep the books and manage the daily life for themselves and their families. When they write, women talk about love, working, having fun, learning and maintaining their health.  It could be that the attitude of woman is entirely different.  Many of us approach the aging process with an eye to aesthetics.  Many women have always done day to day things so retirement is not a wonderland of doing nothing.  They know better...retirement is just living.  Hopefully, all women view that stage in their life as an opportunity to grow intellectually. On Venus the doors are always open and it is so beautiful here!   And the numbers associated with the length of our existence are meaningless.

I invite you to visit the websites I mentioned above:

• More Magazine
• Advanced Style by Seth Cohen
• Fab over Fifty
• AARP
• Fifty is the New Forty Blog
• Fifty is the New Forty website
• TED Why We Grow Old and How to We Can Avoid It 
• Men are from Mars Women are from Venus 

Have a wonderful Sunday and week to come.

b

Note: And now I see that GenX is following in the Boomers footsteps.  More's editor and chief, Lesley Jane Seymour was one of those interviewed for  a wonderful article in the Los Angeles Time.

Gen X women, young for their age.

Related articles

• Sagging underarm problems??? Shopping for the look! (retireinstyleblog.com)
• Advanced Style (itsnicethat.com)
• Style, the Mirror and a Pose! (retireinstyleblog.com)
• Learn to be old...be true to yourself! (retireinstyleblog.com)
• How to Retire...Live on LESS Than You Have (retireinstyleblog.com)