Age Qualified – The New Old

Woman eating ice cream on the beach

No baggage. No prejudice.

Excerpt from DiscoverAge (book): “Sitting in the Bulawayo club’s splendid and empty Dining Room having breakfast, there was enormous certainty, direction, and new energy. I knew what I was going to do. I’d continue traveling and writing, and while I did, I’d research age and aging. I accepted this would take years, which was appropriate because to have credibility, DiscoverAge had to be written by someone who was age-qualified, and I felt I was too young; I was sixty-eight.

It was only later I realised why I had avoided writing ‘DiscoverAge had to be written by someone who is ‘age qualified,’ and not by ‘someone who is old.’

There is no rite of passage to being ‘old’ as there is in becoming an adult at twenty-one. There is no specific number, as in years, sixty, sixty-five, seventy-five, etc., when you become old. Retirement, since its unpopular introduction more than a hundred years ago, has long been accepted as the age when someone is old.

Old, it may be a small, three-letter word, but it is giant in its power and effect. There are few words as unwelcome and unloved carrying so much ageist baggage. It’s not uncommon when people talk about a person’s age, for them to whisper or surreptitiously, silently mouth the three letters, O-L-D. It’s as if even the sound of the word is unwelcome. Just saying, ‘He’s old, she’s old,’ and the mind explodes with visions of someone stooped and shuffling, physically weak, images of ill health and dependency. The accepted assumptions and expectations of being ‘old.’ Perhaps feared glimpses of personal futures.

For the ‘unqualified,’ the young, and sadly for many who are ‘qualified’ to be old is unwelcome and unwanted. We are encouraged, to ‘fight age’ as though old was an evil, an enemy. We are told that to be old is horrible and everyone should try to be forever young. Which is manifestly impossible, but somehow, it remains the goal. We have created a culture and live in a society where youth, being ‘eternally’ young, has become an ambition. Ironically, at the same time as we are encouraged to fight age, everyone wants to live a long life.

We are uncomfortable talking about old because of the existing vocabulary and the ageist prejudice associated with the little word. It is heavy with bigoted baggage, which makes it a massive challenge for anyone writing about or discussing ‘age.’ Language matters, and there is a very limited vocabulary for age and being old.

I first encountered the phrase age qualified on a visit to Laguna Woods in California. Laguna Woods was the first ever purpose-built community where people of a certain age, the over sixty fives, could live together, separate from wider society. Today, Laguna Woods is huge, with over 18,000 people living in a variety of homes, from modest to mansions. I had joined their weekly ‘Visit and Aquaint’ tour. The marketing was American and very slick. Impressive. I read the brochure and carefully listened to the video on the large TV. At no point was there mention of the old or retired. Instead, the residents were referred to as ‘age qualified,’ a neutral phrase that carried no baggage and no prejudice.

I agreed and use ‘age qualified’ throughout DiscoverAge.

There is no ‘old’ rite of passage, as there is in becoming an adult at twenty-one. When do you become old? There is no specific number, as in years, sixty, sixty-five, seventy-five, etc. Since its unpopular introduction more than a hundred years ago, retirement has long been accepted as the age when someone is old. So retire

ment is used as a benchmark; a person is age qualified once retired.

Or simply put, I use age qualified instead of old.

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