Reframing Aging

Before the virus forced us all to stay home I enjoyed a brief volunteer stint with The American Red Cross of Northern New England. I didn't save any lives or give cookies to blood donors, but I did help a team of first responders install new fire alarms in a crumbling  apartment. Anyway, my name remains on their email list so I get to read about what's new at the Red Cross. Today I was alerted to an upcoming lecture that piqued my curiosity: 

 "This presentation is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Feel free to disseminate. Join us as we learn more about what aging means, ageism definitions, theories of ageism, explicit and implicit bias, inter-generational tension and (re)framing principles around aging from our guest speaker with the Gerontological Society of America and the Reframing Aging Initiative."

I looked up the word "reframing" and learned it means "changing the way situations, experiences, events, idea and/or emotions are viewed." I must say that as a 74-year-old I was pretty excited, since I'm sick and tired of how older people are denigrated in America. Just this morning my son related a negative encounter he had with one of his students recently, and he explained her lack of credibility this way: "She turned out to be like 65. Sorry Mom, but you know -- she's old." (There's some of that inter-generational tension they will be discussing in the lecture.)

Anyway, who isn't interested in finding out what aging means? I always thought it meant that over time your body starts falling apart and eventually stops working altogether, but I guess I'm wrong. I might have to check it out.