It's the middle of August here in Minneapolis and already I can hear the whisper of fall. As usual, my garden is wild and unkempt. I vow each year when it is a baby garden and all neatly planted that I will keep it that way—neatly in it’s place. Then the plants get big and the weeds get bigger and the wild flowers take over and then it’s July and August and it is a jungle of green and yellow and purple and orange and more green and a bit of white. Weeds that I don’t know the names of gallantly supporting black-eyed susans and morning glories.
Finally, this year I realize within the guilt feelings of not being a very good gardener that I like it that way. I like not just looking at my garden but rather being in the middle of it. Queen Anne’s Lace are weaving their way through the garden chairs on the patio. Spaghetti squash ramble over the Pollinator garden. Harvesting the cherry tomatoes is a feat of balance with cucumbers rambling across the raised beds.
I want to be in the middle of the garden, close to the bees and the blooms. I realize that I live my life a bit like this. And especially as I am in my sixties now (still blows my mind that decade), I want to be in the middle of things and not just looking in from the outside.
Which comes to my point of this little blog post—what happens when we get into our sixties and seventies and eighties in our American society. We become relegated to the side lines, looking in where we used to be in the middle. American society clings on to youth as if it is the only place to be. But by 2030 according to the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, there will be 1.4 billion people in the world that are in their senior years. As we add years to our lives around the world, we have a huge number of vital older people who are being dismissed and isolated. A huge potential for the value of life experience to be integrated into our society with wisdom and vitality. American culture is particularly bad at utilizing the potential of senior members of our society. Modern media has few role models of vital aging. Senior workers are laid off and relegated to invisible status.
As vital members of the aging community, we need to stay in the middle of our lives, not just looking from the sidelines. We cannot believe the hype in modern media that we lose value as we age. We gain value and should believe and act on that wholeheartedly. Get involved in aging activism, engage in new activities and explore what you have always wanted to do. Stay active and extend your own concept of what it means to live in the middle of your garden.
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