What Do We Really Want From Senior Living?

Are we living or just being maintained?

Photo by Centre for Ageing Better on Unsplash

Joseph Campbell wrote about bliss and rapture as what happens when the life we ought to be living becomes the life we are actually living. I keep thinking about that idea as I look around Aging Acres.

What life ought an 85-year-old be living?

I don’t mean the life someone else thinks is appropriate for an old person. I mean the life that person actually wants.

That distinction matters more in senior living, perhaps more than administrators realize.

When I think about what I want, my list is surprisingly ordinary. I want to lose some weight. I want to drink less coffee and eventually live without the heartburn it causes. I want to write more. I want to exercise and remain physically capable.

I want periods of uninterrupted privacy; I want conversations in which I can talk freely about things that actually matter to me. I want to feel that I am still becoming something rather than merely being maintained.

And underneath all these wants may be another: I want to feel good enough and valued.

For me, that has always been a difficult need. Perhaps at this stage of life I am discovering that achievement, self-respect, health, writing, discipline and meaningful…