ELDERS

When we think about getting older, more often than not, our own loved ones pop into mind. The immediate image might be their declining mental and physical capabilities, health complications or lack of independence. But, we do know our elders are more than that. We know they connect us with our past and shepherd us through our own inexperience, graciously. Our elders are just us with the wisdom of a life lived well and long.

And yet we yearn to be young. Our society has chosen to shun the inevitable: aging. For years pop culture has portrayed senior citizens as helpless, frail and crotchety. Home Alone, Up, and St. Vincent specifically depict elderly characters being difficult, cantankerous and often more of caricatures than people. How can it not start to feel like a person’s “good years” end after youth when lists like Forbes's “30 Under 30” and Fortune’s “40 Under 40” exist?

Well, we want to show that usefulness knows no age. It's never too late to travel the world, push your body to new limits or fall in love. In fact, people might be craving this perspective more than ever. Just this year ABC’s had its first 72-year old bachelor and he brought in the streaming service’s most watched premiere. Sounds like viewers want new, old stories! Grannies staging protests to save the environment. Retired Japanese engineers putting their lives on the line to clean nuclear waste. Elders who have created the greenest island on Earth. Now when we think about getting older, we think first about how all these limits simply do not exist.