A Different Take on Aging

Jane Fonda (yes, THAT Jane Fonda) has a talk to TED about the later years- Life's Third Act. In it she challenges a previous paradigm that had aging as "pathology." Again was what happened to us when we got "past our prime" and were unable to continue to do what we used to do. Life was an "arch" with childhood the upward arc toward the heights of middle-age and then the declining arc of later adulthood.

But, Fonda points out, we have added as much as 30 years to life expectancy over the past 60 - 75 years. That is a whole additional adult life.

Think about that.

One additional adult lifespan.

She sees aging as a

staircase. An upward ascension of the human spirit, bringing us into wisdom, wholeness, and authenticity. Age as potential. It is not just for the lucky few. People over 50 tend to be less stressed, ... even happier...

The human spirit can continue to ascend and does not fall prey to the otherwise hard and fast rule of entropy, the downward side of the arch.

Personally, as I am well past the age of my own parents early deaths, closer to 65 than 60, I find that she is right on target.

Here then are Jane Fonda's insights. Catch them.