Peak - Reinventing Middle Age, by Patricia & Don Edgar (Text Publishing)
High profile and high-energy octogenarians Patricia and Don Edgar have “both experienced the ambivalence that accompanies ageing”, adding that while “life continues to offer opportunities and enjoyment, physically we are slower; our bodies need more maintenance.”
Since finishing careers in, amongst other things, TV production and family studies, they have kept themselves admirably busy in researching and writing about a range of issues relating to Australian society. In this case the focus is on how to maximise the productivity and social engagement of middle-agers, a group they define as being 50 to 75 years.
That said, “we don’t see these age brackets as fixed or uniform stages but as a way of thinking about our longer life journey to help shift policy in a more positive direction.”
As well as producing a work aimed at helping us get more out of life as we age, they have produced a thoughtful and challenging study that should elicit responses from those in positions of influence, not least politicians who to date have been remarkably quiet on many of the key issues raised, despite all the talk about ‘innovation’.
“The bureaucrats and politicians who are entering their peak years are not thinking about the years ahead, they are consumed by the moment, but our future wellbeing depends on creative thinking and innovative solutions, which are needed now.”
Issues covered include workplace discrimination against older people (“Ageism is no more acceptable than is sexism…”), the future of employment (“Alternatives to paid work will become essential for all at some stage in life”), lifelong learning, the burgeoning number of truly old people (by 2026 the number of centenarians for every 100 babies born will be more than twice that in 2012), finances (“20 or 30 years of retirement is challenge enough, much less financing life to 100”), housing (“Only 70 per cent of Baby Boomers own or are currently paying off a home”), and of course, health.
“The practice and teaching of medicine is out of step with the needs of middle-agers,” they argue.
“It focuses on individual problems, rather than a holistic view of health… as patients age they present with multiple issues… As society ages the system needs to respond to a very different health scenario.”
Noting the importance of mental health, and how middle age can bring feelings of despair, loneliness, or grief through losing partners or meaningful work or purpose, they say post-WW2 Baby Boomers are more afraid of losing their memory than of death.
“If every adult were seen as a resource, not as just a dollar-producing consumer in an ever-growing ‘productivity’ system,” the Edgars write, “we could transform middle age into a time of growth, both for the benefit of individuals and for the good of society as a whole.
“Reinventing the middle years of life is the key to that goal.”
This flags the second part of the book, The Reinventers, a series of vignettes of ‘middle-agers’ whose diverse stories are encapsulated by the chapter headings - “An adventurer of no fixed address”, “The most kissed woman in Fitzroy”, “The film guru and his partner”, “From young widow to wise elder”, and so on.
While immensely diverse in nature, they are linked by their inspirational nature, an attribute of the work at large, along with its challenges to policy makers.
“This book addresses the need for a complete rethink about the nature of middle age and how Australia society will be changed by the needs and demands of a growing number of active middle-agers in search of purpose throughout a longer life.”
During the 2016 election campaign, they lament, “there was no evidence major parties on either side were giving any thought to how our social structures, personal relationships, education systems and work patterns need to adapt.
It is a sad indictment of a society that claims to be flexible, inventive and innovative.
