Health
New attitude on aging may bring about "amortality"
Baby boomers are exercising and making healthy choices every day - and living longer as a result. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have put the American life expectancy at an all time high, and scientists are constantly working toward new discoveries that can further extend a person's lifespan.
Time Magazine reports that we may be entering an era of "amortality," when age will no longer matter. The baby boomer generation has redefined many things as they have reached retirement age, and it looks like they are going to continue changing the face of retirement as we know it.
"Strictly speaking, longevity is measured in numbers: it is the arithmetical accumulation of days, weeks, months and years that produces our chronological life," wrote the psychiatrist and gerontologist Robert Butler in his last book, The Longevity Prescription, Time magazine reports. "Yet aging - or, more accurately, its converse, staying young - is in no small measure a state of mind that defies measurement."
To put it shortly - age may all be in your head.
This sentiment is widely shared by the residents of Sun City Shadow Hills, a Del Webb retirement community in California's Coachella Valley. Retirement is no longer seen as the halt to all work - it's now a time to experiment with diverse leisure activities, hobbies and, yes, even other jobs.
Patti and Phil Wolff are prime examples of this lifestyle. Patti, 63, enjoys catering parties and dinners with her trademark culinary expertise. Last year, one dinner-dance she managed drew a crowd of more than 80 people and she often hosts events at her home in Shadow Hills that are very popular within the community.
As for 63-year-old Phil, Patti says he is so busy working out, playing softball and cycling upwards of 175 miles a week that that the couple can go a while without crossing paths.
"Basically, he does so many things that I hardly see him," she told the publication. "It's like if he was back at work again."
Sun City Shadow Hills is just one of many Del Webb communities geared toward this active lifestyle. The residents are not settling down, they're broadening their horizons. Some choose to start their own businesses, while others take advantage of learning initiatives that allow them to become students at top-notch universities. Every day, older Americans are showing that the point is that retirement is no longer the time to stop everything - it's time to start living with enthusiasm.
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