- Ruth Bader Ginsburg became a supreme court justice at age 60 and was crowned as cultural icon “Notorious R.B.G.” at 80, after she delivered a scathing dissent in defense of voting rights.
- Maya Angelou directed her first film at 68 and wrote four books during the last ten years of her life, in her late 70s to late 80s.
- Pablo Picasso produced 347 engravings in one year, at 87. His final works were a mixture of styles and his means of expression kept morphing and growing until the end of his life.
- Susan B. Anthony was past the age of 80 when she formed the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. In the final six years of her life, she spoke at six NAWSA (American Woman Suffrage) conventions and four congressional hearings, completed the fourth volume of the History of Woman Suffrage, and traveled to eighteen US states and Europe.
- Benjamin Franklin was 70 when he signed the Declaration of Independence. He did not retire from public service until he was 82.
Many more examples but I’m guessing you get the point. None of these people took their foot off the gas pedal because of ageist messages. In fact, they seem to have done quite the opposite. They produced a torrent of work, became more daring and their works became more expressive with age. The world is better for it. Despite these shiny examples, ageism runs rampant in modern society. Over the last few years we’ve heard a lot about valuing lived experiences but why are they less valued in the workplace when they come in aging and aged bodies? The lack of intergenerational work and collaboration feels like massive waste of wisdom. And this bias feels so arbitrary across disciplines. While some professions like science, humanities and academia seem to value the wisdom of age, others―like business―generally don’t. We’re not discussing physical disciplines here. How can humans appear sharper and more seasoned with age in some intellectual disciplines and not the others?
Just when a person gets comfortable being themselves, just when one taps into their sense of purpose, and just when a person gains enough lived experience to contribute meaningfully, others turn their backs in favor of tight skin and sharp eyesight. We may have it backwards. Our institutions and communities are complex and no single generation can adequately address these issues without the cooperation and contributions from others. We are so fixated on how best to divide the economic pie that we forget we can increase it.
“And as, methinks, shall all,
Both great and small,
That ever lived on earth,
Early or late their birth,
Stranger and foe, one day each other know.”― Henry David Thoreau
