Third Age is busy but not business

By John Henry Peck
Columnist

John Henry Peck's to-do list:

Load up car with day's essentials. Take canine companion Charlie to the dog park. Be open to new adventures and go where the spirit moves. Write follow-up column to January 2007 North Forty News and Fossil Creek Current profile by Dan MacArthur, who interviewed me because he heard I was an "interesting old guy." (I took that to be a compliment, but could be wrong.)

Like a lot of old guys with a captive listener, I blabbed away to the reporter about the aging process, which in my opinion doesn't necessarily include declining health, declining happiness and declining meaningful activity.

In my 13 years of retirement, I have experienced exactly the opposite in all areas. Each year brings me more fun, my health gets better, my life gets busier with worthwhile activities and, most importantly, I experience more love and respect with family and friends than ever before.

I believe that every one of us makes choices--for better or worse--about the kind of person we will be in old age. We are not victims. We are the sum of our life choices. To have health, you need to live a healthy lifestyle. To have friends, you must be a friend. To have enough money, you need to be content with what you have.

Old age can be the time of immense freedom for which you have worked for all those years. You can dress how you like, tell the truth, walk your dog, smile at pretty girls, drink coffee with buddies all morning, ride around in your car going nowhere in particular, and say "no" without feeling guilty.

Sociologists call this activity in the last third of a person's life the Third Age. The First Age, from birth to the 20s, is when you gain the education and self-confidence to function in the adult world. In your Second Age, you establish a place in the world of work, build relationships and a family and, hopefully, prepare for the time when you enjoy the fruits of your investments of time and money.

Today's Third Agers are the first entire generation in American history to enjoy this third act. In the not-so-distant past people tended to get sick or die at a much younger age. You've all heard that 85 is the new 65, and in many ways it's true. Researchers believe that Baby Boomers, who are just now beginning their journey into the Third Age as the oldest turn 62, will have a bonus of 30 or so extra years to be physically and mentally active with the right life choices.

So, if you are a Third Ager now, or see this stage in your near future, now is time to let go of past bad habits, to do what you have always wanted and to build a new identity if you don't like whom you've become.

One way to start this process is to be intentional about everything you do, from how and with whom you spend your time, to choices about work (for money, for fun, to pay back the world or not at all). I intentionally surround myself with positive, interesting, adventurous friends, young and old, who choose life.

During my scenes (Second Age) playing a vocational counselor, I discovered life is too short to spend it working at anything you don't really enjoy, so my work has always been play. Some Third Agers choose to keep working at their profession because they enjoy it so much. Others travel, play golf, volunteer, garden, take classes, spend time with family or log hours on the computer. Anything that nourishes a sense of well-being is an acceptable choice.

Recently my dog Charlie and I went exploring the back roads of Larimer County's North Forty areas in and around Terry Lake and Wellington. I stopped at a gas station and overheard another "old guy" explaining to a younger man how he learned to rig up a jacking system to hoist heavy items, which he used to pick up by using only his own muscles. (Or, as my dad used to say, by brute strength and awkwardness.) I laughed to myself when the old guy said, "When you get older, buddy, you gotta use your head and figure it out."

That is also not bad advice when planning your Third Age and identity as a sage, a wise old person, content with your lot in life.