Of Age and Negativity and Moving Forward to the Future

There's a bad side to getting older.

Well, there are a lot of bad sides. But there is one particular bad side that we should concern ourselves with as a matter of public policy. And that is the unfortunate fact that people become more negative and pessimistic as they age.

And why not? As you reach your fifth, six, seventh, eighth decades, your options begin to narrow down. Looking ahead starts to get a bit frightening, doesn't it? I mean, really, how can you be an optimist when all you've got to look forward to is declining strength, receding powers and endless evenings of cribbage in the nursing home rec room? And that's the good news. The bad news doesn't bear thinking about. But it lurks in the the back of the minds of most people who are, as we say, getting up there in age. So it's really hard to be a sunny optimist.

So what, you ask. What's that got to do with the price of tea in China? How does that have anything to do with public policy?

It has this. We have to recognize the fact that we, as a nation, are getting older. Our leaders are older. Our peers are older. We are older. The boomers, who have for so long have annoyed the rest of the country with our overbearing thoughts and styles and wishes, are getting older. We are losing our blush of optimism. We risk drifting into the negativity and naysaying of the aged.

As a country, we have to understand that much of the carping and whining that goes on around here has a great deal to do with the fact that a lot of us are getting older. We carp and whine for the same reason that babies cry. It is natural and normal for people our age. We are becoming grumpy old men and women.

So - recognizing that we're dealing with an aging population that is given to carping and whining and wanting to live in the past -- we have to make allowance for the aging of boomers and build that understanding into the way we formulate our public policy.

Somehow, in the face of massive negativity and naysaying, we have to find a way to be publicly optimistic. We have to find a way to believe in a future that many of our citizens find unacceptable -- simply because they find all futures unacceptable. We must acknowledge that there is no way to please a large number of our people. They want time to stop, to run backwards. We cannot do that.

We must go forward or die. We must be optimistic. We must want to take chances, to change things, to risk all. We cannot go backward to a better time or stay frozen in this moment forever.

This is not easy. Boomers are by nature busy and active people. They are used to setting the tone, pushing the agenda and occupying the high ground. They have dominated the landscape for so long, that they will have difficulty looking themselves in the eye and admitting that some of the things they're feeling right now are nothing more than the natural fears of aging human beings.

No, Chicken Little. The sky is not falling. We have not gone to Hell in a handbasket. There are no boogiemen under the bed or Commies in the closet. We are neither awash in garbage nor choking on smog. Our children are not all crack-crazed layabouts. Eating an all-fruit diet will not make us immortal, nor will drinking eight glasses of water a day make us into gods.

Life goes on. Time passes. We will get old and die.

This is hard thing for boomers, to admit that there will be a world when we are gone -- a world that does not have us as its centre. And to recognize that perhaps, heresy of heresies, the world that follows us might be a better world that the one we, in our infinite wisdom, have created.

Somehow, as a society, we must reach down beneath the scum of age to rediscover ourselves as an optimic, forward-looking and adventurous people. We must try new things, think new thoughts, stop being afraid of our shadows.

From a public policy perspective, we have to understand that our population is getting old, and that old people have, by nature, certain concerns - security of person, good health care, preservation of wealth, social stability, peace and quiet, low interest rates, affordable property taxes, cheap gasoline and reliable mail delivery. All good things in themselves, but stifling if they are the only things a society cares about.

That may have been the big lesson of the Live 8 concerts on Saturday. Young people had a great time complaining about the prevalence of geezers - lord knows the Toronto Star was full enough of snippy little comments from the kids - but the geezers showed us something of value.

They were out there with their optimism on their sleeves and their commitment to the future flying high. Geezers all (or most of them), they found a way to tap into a sense of purpose and optimism that can brush aside the gripy, self-absorbed concerns of the old.

As an aging country, we have to do the same.

In our public policies, we need to recapture a sense of adventure and optimism. We need to move forward, to try new things, to be willing to risk all for a greater prize.

Acknowledging that we are getting older is half the battle.

Now we have to find a way to stop sounding and acting like a bunch grumpy old men and women.

Happy Canada Day to you too.