Old Age Day by Day May 1, 2010

Last week my husband was in the middle of a bunch of other scientists when one of them commented to the others that a professor was moving his lab to France. Why would he do that? they asked. Another answered, Because he's old.

My husband is in his early sixties and so was the professor discussed. They didn't even whisper their comments, because, I suppose, they assumed he was too infirm to hear. Don't worry, I reasssured him, we are the baby boomers and we're taking over the earth. Let them rest easy in their false belief that they rule the world. We do. Why? Not just numbers, but the fact that we are politically active and they don't seem to notice when their rights go down the drain. They are busy facebooking and consuming and texting. You have to notice the world, and we come from a generation of rebel rousers and trouble makers. Whether we wore bell bottoms, or tie dye or business suits with those little bows, we thought the world was ours to change. And a lot of us haven't given up, not one little bit.

There is this myth in science that all your best work is done in your twenties. A lot of professions have this lie stirring around oppressing people who want to explore and find out about themselves and the world. But every day in the newspaper, with people I know, with strangers I meet I find late bloomers. What kind of a phrase is that anyway? Is it late when it comes and for whom is it late? There are opera singers who began voice at 30, writers who penned their first novel at seventy, fifty somethings who started businesses, sixty somethings who stood up and changed the planet. THERE IS NO TIMELINE.

You get to live your life as you see fit, and assess it only if and when you want to.
And by the way, my husband is writing papers for these geniuses in the lab, and figuring out what to make of their data. They'd be lost without him, even if he is ancient. And he's still singing, dancing like there is no tomorrow and learning new things every day. If only they had as much fun!