"Aging is not lost youth but a
new stage of opportunity and strength” – Betty Friedan
Edmundson begins his chapter by talking about how
people tend to peak early in our culture. Very few pro athletes and pop stars
transition from youthful teen to middle-aged adult successfully. People tend to
be upset that they have lived for as long as they have; they feel they’re in
the way. They tend to feel guilty about not being able to keep up with the
youth of today and wish for the youth to include them – to help them relive
their glory days. Edmundson makes it clear that there is one important exception
to this rule: writers. Although the writer may be declining in health, the body
of their imagination is improving with age. No longer do they crave the passion
of love, but rather crave the freedom of old age. With their old age comes
wisdom and time to reflect. Writers are able to look back at their youth
without grasping on to the past. Youth today thrive on constantly moving. They
can never focus on a moment for more than a few minutes. Elders have the
ability to slow down, take a breath and reflect on their lives and truly
understand the complexity of life, love and the world around them which in turn
makes them better writers (Edmundson 234-40).
Why is it that when thinking of aging, people
automatically feel like they are rushing towards an impending doom that they
cannot escape? Aging is a part of life that we must all face, yet society still
treasures the youth and disregards the elders – or so it seems. It is true that
our world is built to help the youth succeed; They are the generations that
will continue on when we have left this world. But why does society disregard
people as they age? Is it shameful to age? Is there not any grace or proudness
in aging?
Think of a popular pop superstar between the ages
20-30. You can think of hundreds if not more – Everyone from Justin Beiber to
Taylor Swift. Male or female. It does not matter; you are able to name
countless people. Now try and think of popular artists that are 50 and above. The
list drastically decreases. Very few of the older artists stay successful their
whole career. If they keep their old style of music they are accused of being
too old. If they change to keep up with modern times they are reprimanded for
trying to regain their youth. Rarely will you hear about the artist until they
go on their farewell tour, where they might be finally celebrated one last
time.
This type of culture makes our society prone to
thinking of aging in a negative light. But what if society used our elders as
more than pictures of our future? The older generations are mirrors to the
past. It is time for people to slow down and reflect on their lives rather than
constantly worry about the here and now. They are able to appreciate where they
came from and recall and express those moments to the youth of today. One
career where this aging process is readily praised is in the field of writing. Aging
may bring creaky backs, arthritis and blocked arteries but it also improves our
brains. And that increases our ability to write.
Our brains truly never stop growing. It was commonly thought
that brain cells died as they became older and as we aged. Experts have now
learned this is completely untrue. Instead our brain cell dying, they build new
neural pathways throughout our lifetime. Our brains are flexible, which is
called neuroplasticity. The brain is capable of dealing with many challenging
events that come with life and easily adapt as we get older. So not only do our
brains remember the past, they are still growing and rapidly changing
(Gray-Grant).
Memory plays a big part in the process of writing. As
we age, we develop better systems for doing things. While memory may be
affected, the brain can become hypersensitive to new information. This causes
elders to be more vigilant in keep written records of tasks and information. We
create and perfect our systems of writing. Youth may not need systems to
complete simple writing tasks, but that makes it difficult to complete larger
goals such as writing books. Having a writing system makes these tasks manageable
and easier to complete (Gray-Grant).
The average seventy-year-old person has experienced
more than the twenty-one-year-old college kid. This is generally a true fact.
With age come experience. We remember times where tasks were hard – counting,
learning to read and write – but now we complete them without even thinking
about it. Now at a senior age there is less for our brains to learn. Not have
to learn more tasks frees up time to do other things, like writing (Gray-Grant).
Humans naturally gain more knowledge as they age. This
coincides with our experiences. Even if people stop going to school after high
school, people have experienced real life. Every song they hear, person they
talk to, book they read, movie they see gives them valuable information that they
can use to shape their writing. Every action creates a new platform for our
creative brains to use when writing. Even better is people gain self-knowledge.
This gives a confidence to the writer. They are able to manage their time
better creating an ease for the writing process. They are assertive in what
they want to say and know how to get their points across in their writing (Gray-Grant).
As we age so do our vocabularies. It is a natural part
of life. Going through life people are exposed to more and more words. As we
see these words more often we become more comfortable with them. We start to
incorporate these words into our natural vocabularies which in turn forces them
into our writing. There becomes a sophistication and confidence in the writing,
rather than using words just to sound intelligent. We may actually know the
definition behind them (Gray-Grant).
As we get older our brains are better able to
communicate with each other. The right hemisphere and left hemisphere are more in
tune with each other. The left hemisphere is more of the logical side while the
right hemisphere is where all the creativity happens. It has been shown that
younger people tend to only use one side of their hemispheres. As they get
older the brains learns to communicate with both sides which makes them able to
do the creative writing and editing at the same time (Gray-Grant).
Younger writers tend to not have full control over
their emotions. This can create either wonderful works of art or complete and
utter chaos. There can be a lack of control in their writing. They let their
emotions dictate where the writing is going to go. Older writers can focus
their emotions and control where their emotions are going to take them. Instead
of giving into the feeling that their writing may be awful, they can channel
that doubt and use it to their advantage, where a younger person may just give
up or continue writing something they know is truly terrible (Gray-Grant).
To go back to our popstar example, let’s look at
writers. Try and name a young writer that has made a huge impact in recent
years. You might be able to name a few, but no one certainly in their teens or
early twenties come to mind. Now think of older writers and then the list
becomes extremely long. There are people Stephen King, Maya Angelou, and
Margret Atwood. Those are just a few of the hundreds any person would be able
to name off.
Aging does not have to an awful thing not matter what
society may say. Yes, society tends to be more directed to youth, but it does
not have to be that way. Older people are wiser, more well-thought, and have
the remarkable ability to sit back and reflect; much of the youth today cannot
do that. They live in the here and now, not the past and the events that shaped
them. Older brains are more fully developed and better built for expressing
themselves. They have better vocabularies, more experience and have lived much
fuller lives than younger people. All these things lead to elders being betters
writers than their younger constituents. To be a better writer, people can practice and
try and build their own skill, but naturally overtime, they will become the
writer they want to be. It may not be today or tomorrow, but they will continue
to write so that they can get better with age.
Gray-Grant, Daphne. “Why Our Writing Improves as We Age.” Publication Coach, Publication Coach, 29 Oct. 2013, www.publicationcoach.com/does-writing-improve-as-we-age/. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.
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