IT'S NOT ABOUT A BIRTHDAY OR A CHRONOLOGICAL YEAR

Growing up in my family, birthdays weren’t big events, nor were they particularly celebrated. For all my younger years – and then some, mine was a shared occasion. I’m an identical twin and “we” had birthdays. We turned 57 last Friday. Sheila, my twin, called early. We never miss calling one another.

I never thought about my chronological age. Never dreaded the Big 30, 40 or 50 for that matter. Maybe 60 will cause some harsher stirrings but I doubt it. To the contrary, I’ve always been a celebrator of age.

For a number of years, in fact, starting in the early 80s, I had a specialty gift manufacturing company, Peacock Papers, whose core product line featured typographically designed messages on an array of cards, party and gift items. Many were upbeat and positive themes around getting older. Color full phrases like “Don’t you Hope you Look this Good at 30, 40, 50, 60,70 Years Old” and “Still Perfect After 30 ,40, 50, 60, 70 Years”…We were the counterpoint to the “Over the Hill” themes - always on black - which some found humorous. When side by side on the retail shelf, however, we always won out. I don’t think times have changed.

We’re endearingly called “baby boomers” by marketers – ThirdAgers in our more expanded world. Interest in us is mainstream and we are fast becoming the most coveted market segment. No wonder; we are, after all, the fast growing population, we control the majority of the financial assets and we are the most powerful consumer force. Hardly a market niche.

ThirdAgers don’t obsess about age. We don’t see ourselves in the narrow and numerically defined categories that advertisers and marketers put us in - like 50+ our Over 50 (not to mention the charming silver, gold, platinum references). What marketers and advertisers don’t get about us is that it’s not about a birthday and it’s not about a chronological age. Rather, it’s about life stage, a maturation stage. In fact, the older we get, the more individuated we become.

We’re not going “kicking and screaming” into old age, and we’re not talking in terms of “aging gracefully”. What seems to be the new paradigm for ThirdAgers is one more like: Life happens. There are events - expected and not - that will impact our lives. There are challenges we will be confronted with and there are losses we will experience. It just comes with years of living. We won’t deny them, rather, we will deal with them, grieve when it hurts and transcend them. And at the same time, we will experience new found freedoms, discover new passion and joy.

When I think about birthdays now, the first thing that comes to mind is how precious life is and how grateful I am for my life. I also admit that with each passing year I have come to appreciate how fast life goes by. If there were any turning back of the clock it would be only to have more years ahead. My observation is that many of us ThirdAgers think the same.