Creative Aging: For Further Reading
“We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel… is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.” – Ursula K. LeG
During the year of writing this column, I have accumulated thirty-some books on aging. Not all of them are equally compelling or useful. Not all of them were published recently. Most of them I bought used from abebooks.com.
Today, I’ll tell you about a few of my favorites, in case you want to do further reading.
The most delightful of the books is Garrison Keillor’s “Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80: Why You Should Keep on Getting Older.” It begins, “My life is so good at 79 I wonder why I waited this long to get here, so much of what I know would’ve been useful in my forties. . . . The world belongs to the young, I am only a tourist, and I love being a foreigner in America.” It continues in this light-hearted tone, similar to that of the tales he told about Lake Wobegon in his NPR radio show “A Prairie Home Companion.”
For something a bit feistier, try “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto against Ageism” by Ashton Applewhite. It is energetic, funny, and packed with information. It traces Applewhite’s journey as she became a pro-aging radical. Throughout the book she challenges myth after myth about late life.
Two books that feature the positive side of aging are “Life Gets Better” by Wendy Lustbader and “The Happiness Curve” by Jonathan Rauch. Lustbader recounts the unexpected pleasures of growing older. She says youth can be a time of tension and confusion, and as we grow older we gain self-knowledge and confidence. Rauch says life gets better after 50. He maintains happiness follows a U-shaped curve, declining from the optimism of youth, slumping in middle age, and rising again in our 50s. He demonstrates how the ordeal of the midlife slump restarts our values, leading to a rebirth of gratitude.
“Brain Rules for Aging Well” by John Medina provides ten principles for staying vital, happy, and sharp. It is part of his “brain rules” series for the different stages of life. Among the topics he covers are friendships, happiness, stress, memory, mind, food, exercise, and sleep.
In “The Big Shift” Marc Freedman targets readers who are navigating the new stage beyond midlife. His book is designed to help transform a midlife crisis into a midlife opportunity. One of his suggestions is a gap year for grownups, taking a year—as young people sometimes do—for reflection, renewal, and redirection. He recommends forging a new map of life, which is tailored to our longer life spans.
Paul H. Irving’s topic is the aging population. “The Upside of Aging” looks at how longer lives are changing the world of health, work, innovation, policy, and purpose. His book is geared for readers in those sectors of society who work with the aging demographic. Each chapter is written by an expert in a different dimension of aging.
For those who are part of the Christian faith tradition, “Third Calling” by Richard and Leona Bergstrom helps answer the question, “What are you doing the rest of your life?” Their work has been described as “Biblically-based, challenging, and very practical.” Throughout the book they make the case that each of us is created and designed for a special purpose and we have an obligation to fulfill that purpose well.
Two classic volumes, both by medical doctors, are “The Art of Aging” by Sherwin B. Nuland and “The Denial of Aging” by Muriel R. Gillick. Nuland has a scientist’s passion for truth and a humanist’s understanding of the heart. He writes with candor and insight about the variability of the aging experience. He covers how our body and mind age and how we make choices as we grow older. He includes case studies of people who overcame some of the challenges of aging. Muriel Gillick is also frank about aging, starting with the fact that eating right and exercising may delay the effects of aging, but they will not prevent it. She lays out action plans for individuals and for communities, suggesting we should not only do what we can to maintain our health, but we should also vote and organize for appropriate housing options, for employment that uses the skills of older adults, and for better management of disabilities and chronic disease.
Finally, I recommend “Taking Retirement” by Carl H. Klaus, founder of the nonfiction program at the University of Iowa. In surprisingly absorbing fashion, Klaus keeps a daily diary of his bittersweet adjustment to retirement after a lifetime of teaching. He says he wrote it “so that I could genuinely take retirement rather than feel as if it were taking me unawares.”
These are a few of the writers who have enriched and illumined my journey during retirement. I hope some of them do the same for you.
Adapted from Creative Aging by Carol Van Klompenburg, published 2023, available from Amazon and for Pella-area residents at Pella Books, the Curiosity Shop, or directly from Carol. Carol has an MA in theater arts and is available for reading performances of her writing on aging, moments in her gardens, memories, and other topics.
Thanks for helping us to remember, Bruce. I remember Jan alongside you, and also alongside you celebrate your second relationship, with Joyce, as well.
I can relate to Freedman's "gap year". I took such a year by circumstances rather than by intent. When Jan died in 2010, I experienced such a year. That included several weeks alone in my travel trailer, visiting places and people we had known during our married life. It was really a healing and revealing time, giving me new perspective, and great appreciation for my 52 years with Jan. The rest is history. Joyce and I found each other, and nearly 13 years later are enjoying our aging years together.