I really enjoyed Mary Sanchez’s Kansas City Star column on Betty White, former Golden Girl and still full-time actress at age 88. More than half a milllion Betty White fans created a successful campaign to get White to host Saturday Night Live. She starred in Super Bowl commercials, did some talk shows, and even has her own Twitter account (with 1,707 followers and 0 tweets!)
The column notes, “How do we cultivate more Betty Whites?” and by that Sanchez doesn’t mean octogenarian actresses, she means vibrant, engaged, active elders. “In seven years, the number of people in the world under the age of 5 years old and those above the age of 65 will cross-cross–meaning there will be more elderly people around than toddlers……within the next 20 years, 44 states will have age distribtutions similar to those now found in Florida.”
The reality is, as Sanchez says, virtually every aspect of life will be affected by seniors in the near future—transportation, housing, labor markets, health care, to name an obvious few.
What does it take to make a Golden Girl? Good genes, good health, good nutrition, good thinking, good luck…and good support by a society that values the continuing contributions of people 4x over the age of consent!