Seniors Week is an opportunity for us all to recognise the generations who saw deep depressions, a world war and other conflicts of immeasurable suffering, hard economic times and lives where women spent more time in the home than in the workplace.
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Theirs is a generation that has seen the world evolve and the education and workplaces of today offer their children and grandchildren the opportunities they often never had.
It is also a time to recognise the contributions so many have made in so many different ways – in selfless and generous measures.
Seniors Week often reflects the mirror images of Volunteers Week, too – they are that demographic who most fit the photo.
Without getting maudlin or drear, some of the statistical detail that has emerged with this week is fascinating in fact.
New research commissioned by Australian Hearing has confirmed the old adage “older and wiser” – with nine out of 10 Australians voting seniors to be a trusted source of wisdom and advice.
The agency also offers up what it calls some pearls of wisdom – words many a kid once heard from his parents or grandparents.
Remember: If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
While scores of activities go on around the region to celebrate Seniors Week, there’s increasingly a lot of health and fitness advice handed out with the fun.
Seniors Week might be a chance to sing out loud about life, but it also gives many a sober opportunity to signal some of the serious issues the seniors these days confront on their healthy scales, whether it’s financial, physical or philosophical.
Not many will admit to loving growing old – well, to a certain extent, grandmas and grandpas love having their families increase, but they will always love being able to hand back toddlers It is an irrefutable fact.
While seniors accept more responsibility these days in their growing-older years, they also have to sometimes confront the fact that to younger people, they are often invisible.
It is a testament of trial for seniors. While many confront physical ailments and disability, their minds remain strong and sound. That is the ambiguity and the angst they often live with.
The wonderful stories of seniors’ superiority and success, and of lives lived well and long, and with outstanding generosity of spirit and happiness, outlive all that grief.
