Early on she mentions super geezers. There are all sorts of definitions of this term - but Ashton is describing folks like George H.W. Bush who jumped out of an airplane on his 90th birthday. Or Yuichiro Miura who climbed Mount Everest at age 80.
Ashton is not celebrating these feats. The media loves them but she believes their celebrity makes life harder for the rest of us over 60.
Placing them on pedestals distracts from the social and economic factors that shrink the world of most older and disabled people.
Ashton's concern is that the natural slow down that all of us face is seen by society as a personal failure. I understand, and, for the most part agree but, on the other hand, it's kind of inspiring to see the exciting things that can be done at an advanced age, even if it's only a few of us who can do them. Because, realistically, only a few of us can do these things at any age.
She also says: Chronological age is an increasingly unreliable benchmark of pretty much anything about a person.
I absolutely agree. So I've decided that I want to be a Super Geezer. No, I don't want to jump out of airplanes or conquer Mount Rushmore, or write a sexy erotic novel like 80 year old Gloria Vanderbilt, but there are things that I want to do - things that possibly only I can do.
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