One phrase of your post holds the key, Ronni: "products and services". Because in our capitalist society the market reigns supreme.
A signficant aspect of aging, especially for folks like us who are experiencing the process with perhaps a greater degree of awareness, is the realization that happiness now depends more on being than on having. As we age, living fully and deeply becomes more important than getting and spending. Many of us find ourselves shedding 'stuff' rather than accumulating it, living more simply, escaping from the consumer ratrace. Since the only products and services we might need more of when we are old are the ones related to health and mobility etc. that's about all the corporate world has left to flog to us.
Attitudes to aging may not appear to have changed since 2003 when you started TGB, but I think they are beginning to. And you've played - and are still playing - a more valuable part in that process than you realize. So don't be disheartened. Deep ocean currents aren't always visible on the surface.

If it's any comfort to you, Ronni, I've learned so much from you & TGB. So thank you for that :)For example the phrase "issue fatigue" from Citizen K is so correct for me & friends who feel the same way. And then along comes insightful Marian :)with whom I totally agree: it's money, money, & more money. Some days is discouraging to realize that today's standards for elders are so distorted & misleading. When will we learn? On a more positive note, I'll say that the one thing I look forward to most when I have my coffee is TGB & your writing. Thanks for helping me put a positive spin on the day. Dee

You know, while I hate that my issue of Newsweek is full mostly of drug ads and the ubiquitous gecko, what I hate even more is that the ads are so *bad.* If you want to see fun, clever ads, you have to look hard no matter what, but my gosh! the ads targeted to us over-50s are so dour, humorless, and stupid. Ditto the AARP publications. The assumption that I'm falling apart doesn't bother me as much as the assumption that I'm most likely to respond to dull, unimaginative advertising.

I don't mind that it's about money - consumerism runs the economy (although that there is not a space in the entire country not plastered with an ad is depressing) and that's not something that can change dramatically.

What I mind is the representation of elders as unwell (have you noticed that many of the commercials are about the ickiest things our bodies can inflict on us) or as overachieving to the point of ridiculous, along with the implication that if we're not climbing K2, we are somehow deficient.

And yes, Mary, the stupidity of the advertising is insulting.

Elora - I'm looking forward to your blog.

I agree with Marian Van Eyk McCain that the advertising world has not really "located" us yet and perhaps no longer can. That's surprising, though, since they've defined our wants and needs from the baby powder on our bottoms to the buttocks lifts and BMW's we lusted after in our fifties. No wonder we, The Pepsi Generation, feel a little abandoned and invisible.

Please, Ronni, never think TGB is not making a difference. The fact that you're being solicited means "they" have begun to notice that difference and want to tap it. Do we still want to be marketed and advertised to? If we do, to any degree at all, then what do we want them to sell us and how? If not Viagra, then what? If we could market ourselves, would we?

Meanwhile, I want my TGB. Oh, and, there are Elder Coaches?! Really?

Ronni please don't ever underestimate the impact of your thoughts, insights and words shared via TGB.

Here on the internet you have created a cyber-lighthouse, a point of navagation and warning for the uncharted waters of later life. I can only imagine the frustration you must feel at times unable to alter the course of captains seeming determined to run aground. But the remainder of us, sailing small ship (or row boats, lol) navigate dangerous reefs (and times) with the aid of your TGB lighthouse.

You give us oh-so-easy-to-access info, links, information and laughs. You and your enlisted cowriters encourage us to learn, to dance, to live as life unfolds, neither ignoring or fixating on the changes that later years bring.

Remember, lighthouse...
(and roflmao I like to think of crabby as the fog horn)!

Happy 2010
Faye

Because I grew up with old people being respected and interesting, I didn't really get the whole idea of aging-- or so I would have said except when Marilyn Monroe died, I thought she was over the hill at what 36. A few years later, I'd have thought old started in your 50s. It seems to be relative.

Generally the anti-aging stuff just goes over my head today BUT when I saw the latest Vanity Fair cover showing Meryl Streep at 60 with a big article on how she had achieved bigger hits than when younger and was not botoxed or surgically enhanced, while they had photoshopped her face to do all of that, I was irked. Even inside the photos were all smudged and turned into a 30 something when she was talking about her being able to play interesting roles about older women-- if not yet old. When they can put her on the cover, looking 60 and still say it's beautiful (and it would be) that's when it would be interesting. We are sure not there yet where we worship at the altar of youth.

Not true, not true. "Nothing has changed since I started TGB. So much for any influence it might have."

I quote you often, you and Paul Krugman are my go-to people for sorting out the health care changes and the coming regulation of the banks and finance systems. I am a retired programmer with a college degree but without the thinking woman's view you provide on those matters I'd be struggling even more with the details of those devilish issues. And I'm happy to send your link and quotes to everyone I know. Including my children and other younger relatives who regard their elders as less than they should at times.

I suspect the downstream effects of your efforts may not be so visible to you, casting your words out into the vastness of the internet, but you do change how people think, and you encourage me to show myself to the world as a rational, functioning older human, instead of just saying "crap" and staying in the house. Thanks Ronni

I have removed the original last sentence of this post. I am abashed at all your kind comments about Time Goes By, but I didn't mean to be begging for compliments.

You know, sometimes when I'm writing, I get all lost in too many details and go to far, losing the point. The bottom line of what I really wanted to say today is this:

1. The picture that generally comes to mind with the idea of children is not a kid lying in a hospital bed or uncommunicative with autism or the other terrible things that can befall them. What we think of are short, little humans running and jumping and laughing, making a lot of noise and having fun.

2. The picture that generally comes to mind with the idea of old people is not taller, wrinkly humans with dignity and perhaps some wisdom. It is, instead, sick, decrepit and fuzzy in the head if not outright senile.

That disturbs me and it needs to change.

Betty Davis said, "Getting old ain't for sissies." And she, in many ways, was right because it's a strange new world for most of us. You, Ronni, were/are a pioneer in dispelling the myths and offering support but, like any change, it is isn't happening overnight. Thank you for your excellent and tireless efforts. And yeah, down the road things will get better!

I live in Hawaii, a place where being old is not a social liability. The minute I set foot on the Mainland, I feel that old age miasma creeping over me as I experience again the pervasive ageism of mainstream American life. Ageism forces old people to segregate themselves, imitate young people, etc. etc. which is not how it is here.
Respect for elders is part of Hawaiian and Asian society, and I benefit from that. I never have to feel defensive about my age.
It can be different. I have experienced this.

There seems to be only one view of aging: you don't want to go there. Even though it's inevitable, you don't want to go there! When I was young, we said the saying was "Don't trust anyone over 30." Somehow I think this continues. On the other hand, when I'm with people my age (63), it seems like way too much of the conversation is about what hurts or who is sick or what hurts. I had three surgeries in 9 months but two of them - the weight loss surgery and my double knee replacement surgery - were designed to make me better. (I also had a hysterectomy which was relatively painless if a little tiring.) Now I feel like a new person. I seldom tell anyone my age and would never let it slip to a prospective employer. I color my hair and, luckily, don't have a lot of wrinkles yet. I HATE the attitude that I get from some people that I can't do anything, couldn't possibly know anything about computers, etc. I went back to school when I was in my late 50's and did very well, better than when I was younger. Most of my classes were online including math which had been my most hated class in the past. I got a B!

I am almost 90. Every survey drops off age-wise at age 60 as if nothing ever changes after that age. I hate that.I have grown and developed and learned so much since then.

After age 86 I became my husband's total caregiver for four years supervising daytime health aides for two of those years before he died.

I went on the comedy stage for the first time and recently got my first pay for standup comedy at age 89. I have just begun violin lessons since I taught myself to play with the help of my elementary music teacher and stopped playing violin after junior high.
I published two books and three mini-books since I was 60 and am on my third book. I wrote about grandma's sexuality when no one thought that grandparents were still having sex.

My daughter is planning a cruise to Alaska for my 90th birthday next summer. If you haven't been on an Alaska cruise,call 206-246-4116 for reservations!

There had better be a talent show on board as I don't like to just sit around, I like to be involved.

And this is the main reason I like www.timegodsby.net. mAazing posts.

Correction on the previous post. My name is spelled Kunkel. Wow, my fingers aren't as agile as they were when I was 20.