Ditch "The Rule"

Here it is today, short and sweet:Why, when we encounter or read about a vibrant, curious, active, creatively alive older person is that person “the exception that proves the rule.” Because, as we all know, “the rule” is old equals cranky, crabby, frail, sedentary, sexless, useless. And the rule abides.Why, when we acknowledge that an old person is (you choose): a productive documentary filmmaker (Frederick Wiseman, 84), a brilliant naturalist (E.O. Wilson, 85), an astonishing modern artist (Carmen Herrera, 99), a #1 Billboard entertainer (Tony Bennett, 88) , an avant-garde dancer and teacher (Anna Halprin, 94) are these interesting, engaged, productive, still-growing people all “exceptions that prove the rule” – the rule being getting older sucks and nothing good will come of it and your best days are behind you.Isn’t it time we consider that these “exceptions” actually challenge the rule? Isn’t it time we reconsider what aging means – or can mean – if we remain curious and open to experience, if we work to keep ourselves strong and healthy, if we stop buying into “the rule?"  Time to ditch the damn rule. Read this elegant little essay by Lewis Lapham (who will be 80 this January) with accompanying portraits in last Sunday’s New York Times magazine. And think of each one of the “Old Masters” profiled in the story as examples of – not exceptions to – aging.