Do we need a special name to identify with because we are getting older? Isn’t “Seniors” good enough? A professor of Psychology and the Director of the Stanford Center on Longevity at Stanford University who, in an Op-Ed article in the Washington Post at the end of December, 2017, wrote that she thinks “Perennials” might be a good term to saddle us with so no one can offend us.
It’s actually a pretty good article, but it presupposes that we need to have some sort of special identification when we become a certain age; that there is a pressing need for a new category to describe older adults in this world of overly categorized and self-segregated people, so we won’t be offended when younger generations refer to as “older”. At least that’s what the article says.
I have seen the phrase “Hey Boomer” used a lot in print as a derogatory term to describe foibles that occur with some of us “older people”. I have never heard anyone actually use the phrase.
What will we be told the “Perennial” stereotype (excuse me, I mean “characteristics”) will look like? Hunched over posture? Immobile? Infirm? Weak? Feeble? Or can we choose our stereotype to be Active, Self-actuating, Fit, Healthy, Independent, filled with energy and enthusiasm about life?
I pray we won’t be characterized as victims, demanding of special treatment and recognition like the rest of the self-identified groups that have so recently popped up?
Or just maybe we can recognize our own individuality and take care of our own side of the street first, before demanding that people identify us as a group in need.
One of the letters to the editor in response to this article suggested that she (the letter writer) was born in 1940, the “generation without a name”. She said, “. . . I appreciate the fact that no one gave us a label. What a gift! And I would like it to stay that way.” YES INDEED!
Of course, that means taking care of ourselves, being personally responsible for ourselves, moving our bodies, having a positive mindset, becoming self-actuating, and not thinking of ourselves as needy.
If we can’t reflect those attributes in the way we come across to ourselves and others, then perhaps it’s time to re-think our attitude.
All this is one more reason to take a close look at ourselves and see how we stack up with our own identity, and not let others “editorialize” our generation into a group that is already so diverse within itself, that to categorize us would be a travesty of the truth — the same as it is with so many “named” groups now.
Like the woman who wrote the letter to the Editor above, I was born in 1940. Yes, I am a “SENIOR” and I LIKE THE TERM. It’s positive and upbeat.
What happens when today’s “Millennials get old? Will they be called “Millennial-Perennials”?
This has been a SeniorFlow Moment. Thank you for reading.
