You need to be fifty (an age that now includes baby boomers) to join the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). This age is taken as the beginning of the target age to be consider as senior. For purposes of Social Security and Medicare, you qualify at sixty-two and sixty-five, respectively, but the threshold for age of eligibility for early entry into Social Security is increasing two months each calendar year. In other words, you have to be two months older next year than you do this year to enter the system. (more…)

Geezer, old fart, old folk, or shaman, elder and tzaddik: which will you be? in many cultures the elderly are treated with respect and even reverence. In modern day America and other “modern societies” the aged are treated as casts offs. Put away in retirement/nursing homes. We’re no longer important, hip, the only “buzz” about senior citizens is their drain on the economy because of Social Security.

I don’t know about you but as I enter this “Third Age” and look around I see many vibrant, interesting older people still very much with it. (more…)