October is my favorite month of the year for estate planning. It is the essence of fall. It is the gateway to winter and analogously, to the Winter of our lives.
October as a time of reflection on life is not lost on Major League Baseball. MLB's slogan for October is "I Life for This". Well, I don't. I mean, I do love baseball. I love the Red Sox. I especially love October baseball. But I don't live for 18 men playing ball for millions of dollars. Baseball is a pastime.
What do we live for? Elders, facing the scourge of aging and the loss of those dear to them, lose clear reasons to live. It is not uncommon for me, when visiting an elderly client at a nursing home, to hear weak voices telling anyone who will listen they want to die.
We live for hope. We live for tomorrow. Without that, death is a comfortable option. What's bothering me is the power of the media, America, Inc., and the organized establishment's role in shaping what they thing retirement and aging should look like for millions of Americans. They employ a cadre of image and word specialists to create viewers, customers and members of organizations.
Take AARP, which after an odd name change, no longer stands for anything - It's just AARP (rhymes with carp, except in Boston where it rhymes with no work in our vocabulary). It is an organization solely committed to delivering the most efficient database of Americans old enough to obtain personal credit (OK, they have some standards - you need to be of "retirement" age, which is defined as age 50).
AARP is essentially a big insurance agency, a vast department store and pharmacy with a direct mail business for every pill pusher, gadget and ointment and older American needs to make life complete. Their mission is to sell and to promote the sale of all manner of tschochkes they think older Americans need to live a good and active life.
The media likewise are entwined with pharmaceutical giants in an effort to maintain fear in the minds of the aged so they can sell them salves and potions.
My generation rarely watches the evening news. How do I know? Well, frankly, how many of us need Lipitor, Viagra, Zoloff or any other little pill? The media machine's news function is largely sponsored by Merck, Pfizer, Novartis and others pandering their trademarked brand for all that ails you.
Many older people watch the news out of fear the world is coming to an end. And it is. Just not today, or in your hometown of Suburbia, USA. I think all of this careful and manipulative branding of what it means to age in America is going to be lost wholesale to the baby boomer generation's unique perspective on things. For one, improved health and increased personal debt will keep them in the workforce for many more years. Retirement, what's that?
Technological connections and improved access to information should help boomers comparison shop for services and test the vapid claims of unscrupulous salesmen.
Last, boomers are tired of being boomers. Seriously, how many times do you need to hear you were the product of your parents' pent-up sexual energy, after years of war in foreign lands? These people were rock'n rollers, hippies, yippies, yuppies, dinks and now boomers. They have had enough of labels. I'm looking forward to watching boomers break the media-imposed aging model AARP and the pharmaceutical machine has so carefully created for them.
