Maria Shriver has been vocal about her vision regarding what life looks like as one gets older. And her outlook is extremely positive. For anyone who feels they should retreat from society as they get older, Maria Shriver is ready to enlighten those around her. Maria talked with Karen Breslau at Bloomberg News about some of her endeavors. Maria has partnered with Sounds True (SoundsTrue.com) where she has a video from her participation in the “Radically Reframing Aging Summit.” She has also worked on a task force in California to reframe and reposition aging.
What if you’ve gotten to a place where you have finished raising your kids, taking care of your parents and now you are free for a new adventure in your life? What’s next? There are a lot of great opportunities for people in their older years and it’s time that we eliminate biases, according to Maria.
There are stale ideas in the workplace where people are forced to retire at a certain age (think golden parachute) and where companies may not want to hire people past a certain age. Yet, businesses and organizations can benefit from a vast difference in age among their employees. Contractors work well too at any age due to the flexibility.
Many young people are living at their parents’ home in later years to save money and there is no longer a stigma associated with it. (Or at least there shouldn’t be). As rent prices have soared, it’s hard to pay rent and save to buy a home. Home prices are extremely high as well. Many parents do well when their adult children visit often. Multigenerational households fare well even if it’s just temporary as what occurred during the Coronavirus.
Not every family is close so if you don’t have a family to connect with, there are many families that love to connect with younger people even if you are not blood related. That includes organizations as well. Maria believes that if you don’t have a family to connect with you should reach out since many families are happy to host others and include them in their lives.
We still see many ads that focus mostly on younger people. What is the vision of the elderly today? Should we change our vision? There are many people thriving in their older age. They are smart, creative and contribute so much to society. Do you feel cherished in society? Do you feel valuable? Maria is working on ways to honor the elderly. We need to change the vocabulary around aging.
Do employers play a role in focusing primarily on young workers? Don’t older workers have extreme value since they have a lot of experience and perhaps a calmer demeanor in the workplace? Shouldn’t people be able to start a new career in their 50’s, 60’s and beyond?
How can society catch up with the new vision of aging? Are there enough resources for an older population? That’s something our country will have to think about as baby boomers become older. Are there enough caregivers, doctors, and other medical professionals who are in tune with the older generation?
Being older can be an exciting, happy time and it’s great that there are organizations and people like Maria Shriver who understand the need to reimagine aging in today’s world.
For more information visit:
https://mariashriver.com/
https://www.soundstrue.com/collections/shop?q=maria+shriver&q=maria+shriver
Stanford Center on Longevity: Home