In the End

“In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.” (Abraham Lincoln)

Most people think of a sixty-five year-old retiree as someone who has entered their “golden years.” Do you know the origin of this phrase? It was coined in 1959 as part of a Del Webb advertising campaign for America’s first large-scale retirement community in Sun City, AZ. It was taking a chance to see if people age fifty-five and older want an active new way of life, move away from their families, and buy one of the modest homes on a two million dollar golf-resort development.

"The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in 70 or 80 years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all." (Doris Lessing)

On the first weekend of this successful campaign, one hundred thousand people showed up to see if a lifestyle free from responsibility and the constraints of working life was possible. For many seniors in the 1950s, retirement was a lonely time of decline. Once they left the workforce their lives had little purpose. Retirees saw themselves as too old to work, and too young to die. The idea of retirement was almost a second childhood.

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age." (Sophia Loren)

Today, the real benefit of retiring in one’s “golden years” is the alternative to focus efforts on what provides meaning personally. Once one’s work years are a thing of the past, a senior can move in a direction that excites them. It’s all about finding one’s purpose that’s provides a sense of enjoyment (whether that means retiring, or staying employed at your current job).

“I call the years when our children are between six and twelve the "golden years," not because everything's perfect . . . but because the kids are capable and independent. . . . They're becoming fascinating human beings who continually astound us and make us laugh. And they build our self-esteem. They still adore us for the most part, not yet having reached that age of thinking everything we do is dumb, old-fashioned and irrelevant.” (Vicki Lansky) [i]

 

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[i] Sources used:

·        “Golden Years” (http://www.dictionary.com/browse/golden-years)

·        “The Term ’Golden Years’ Was Coined In 1959 as an Advertising Pitch For Sun City” by Robert R. Rowley  

·        “The Truth about the ‘Golden Years’” By Mary Lloyd

 

This topic was suggested by my mother, Janice Zarbaugh.