Aging: The Discovery of Place and Purpose; Lowell Holmes

Aging, the discovery of place and the purpose. I'm Byron Kaelos. Wings was written as a work by Arthur Compton for a first-per-radial play. It was commissioned as a radio play on the effect of a stroke on an individual. Kansas State University literature professor Harold Snyder, on two plays, Shadowbox by Michael Christopher and Wings by Arthur Cuppet. He showed us, in a sense, what it was like to have the stroke. What he did in the play on stage was to do something rather unique. He shows the woman having the stroke. He shows the silence in the room and then the sort of the stopping of the clock at the moment that stroke strikes her and then he proceeds to show us how she becomes aware again, comes to life after having been deprived in a sense of her memory and of her, in part of her ability to speak, her ability to function.

It shows her in another world. In the Shadowbox, we have that experience of the physical disability of stroke, but as you said of death, and in the Shadowbox, we have three sets of characters living in three different cottages at a hospice. The hospice movement, as a way of helping people, these, that final moment, is a recent development. I think the play is very, in a sense, informative and striking in what it reveals and how the study of the fear of dying can help us deal with that fear. One thing that's sure as death, I mean one of the characters, the writer, says at one point, people don't want to let go, do they? They think it's a mistake. They think it's supposed to last forever. I'll never understand that.

My God, it's one thing in this world you can be sure of, no matter who you are, no matter what you do, no matter anything. But sooner or later, it's going to happen, you're going to die, and that's a relief, if you think about it. The Shadowbox essentially attempts to make it a relief to show how facing death with the help of your family sort of cut off from all the problems of the family in a separate place. That can be a help. From wings, we're talking about somebody who's facing sort of a strange situation where they're really, they're not really alive, but they're not dead yet. And here is where they're going to be dead. They're going to die. Both of them are facing a situation where it's inevitable. What do they say about what everybody faces in life and how we approach our final year? Well, I mean, you sound as though you're almost leading up to a passage that a statement

that Brian, whom I quoted before, makes, but he says, pain, discomfort, that's all part of living. And I'm just as alive now as I ever was, and I will be alive right up to the last moment, and that's the hard part. Despite of the fact that you might say both of these are painful and distressing subjects, the point of each play, I think, is not to be depressing Emily's struggle and compet's purpose in depicting Emily's struggle is to tell us what it's like. Wings gives us the experience of being thus cut off, of being perfectly aware. I mean, one of the things that Emily does, she's asked questions about what she wants and she says she thinks her sweater and she really says something else, they give her a pillow. And in the shadow box, we are all aware of how painful it is to face the fact of death. To have a loved one, to have a relative, a friend who is dying and whose death we cannot

do anything to change or inhibit or restrain or hold back. But what it does is deal with that fact of death and note in a sense how to live in as a natural circumstances as possible to make the experience bearable. KSU Literature Professor Harold Snyder on aging, the discovery of place and purpose made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council, and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas at KANZ FM, which is solely responsible for its content. Aging, the discovery of place and purpose, I'm Byron Keloz.

Prevailing philosophy in our society today really constitutes a myth. It is that to be among the elderly is to be less than fully human. Associate Professor Albert Cruz-Dale Jr. of Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. I think that it arises primarily from two sources. First of all, it arises from what I would describe as an American cult, namely the worship of youth, not by that I do not mean the worship of young people. And the second source of the myth I think is technology as such.

That is not to pronounce a blanket condemnation of either youth or technology. As we understand technology in the modern world, I think it gives rise to this myth. What kinds of things come to your mind that indicate that we do tend to value the concept of youth more than we do older age? I think the major point at which this myth is exhibited is through American advertising. Advertising comes to us through radio, on television, brochures, billboards. We are bombarded with the message that to be young is to be fully human. To be old is to be less than fully human.

For example, the American advertiser tells the older person that he has the product which you have used over an extended period of time can either return that person to youth or make the person look young or successfully hide the fact that the person is old. Now the assumption behind that is that to be old is bad, to be young is good. American advertising and to a large extent those of us who hear it do not bother to question the fundamental assumption. We have generally bought the cult of youth as a society and we consistently, it seems, lay into the hands of those who perpetrate the myth. Ours is a technological society.

Our values are to a very large extent predicated on that technological society and perhaps primary of which is the belief that the most important knowledge is technological knowledge. Now given the rapid advances in technology, those who are close to the source of these advances either in industry or in research are those who are considered to be the masters of the most important knowledge and those who are considered to be most human. All of us are aware of how quickly those involved in technology, whether it be computer technology or medical technology, just how quickly a person can lose his or her currency or expertise in a particular field.

In our society, losing that expertise, losing currency in a particular field really means to become less valuable to the society and to a certain extent less human. So our society is one that places a premium on technological knowledge rather than on wisdom. Nazarene Theological Seminary Professor Albert Trusdale, Jr. on Aging, the discovery of place and purpose made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas at K-A-N-Z-F-M, which is solely responsible for its contents. Aging, the discovery of place and purpose, I'm Byron Kalos.

So many times what an older person has to contribute to the structure of a society is not technological knowledge, but they in all likelihood do have wisdom to contribute. Associate Professor Albert Trusdale, Jr. of the Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. But in a society that does not value wisdom as being of primary significance in the person who has that but who does not have technological knowledge to contribute will then be valued as less than human, as less important to a society than would be the case with a person who is a master of technological knowledge.

That is not true in all societies, it is not true in some of the Eastern societies. It was certainly not true in ancient China, China dominated by the ideas of Confucius. This was not true in the pre-industrialized West. So this flip flop in the value system in which wisdom becomes secondary knowledge and technological knowledge becomes primary knowledge is a phenomenon rather peculiar to the modern world. The philosophy in American culture that if it is new, it is better. If it is old, it is obsolete and dispensable. This has not always been the case in the West prior to the Renaissance. Scholasticism was the dominant philosophy in the Western world.

Scholasticism probably made the opposite error by saying that if it is old, it is better. The Renaissance challenged that and probably led us to the mistake of saying if it is new, it is better. Science has also contributed to this given the way we have at least popularly understood science. It is that science is always advancing. It is always in the process of challenging old theories, old assumptions by the discovery of new ideas, new factors that call the old into question. And the fallout, the popular or public fallout from that fallible understanding of science is that what we possess in the way of technological implements or gadgetry, machines, household

items, automobiles, the list goes on, will shortly be surpassed by something that is better. And so we live with the idea that what is coming next will be superior to what we have now. So we live with the idea that the new is better, the old is obsolete and dispensable. I think that gets transferred into our evaluation of people. We assume that the person who is younger knows more, understands the genius or genie of science and technology more effectively, and consequently is better.

Nazarene Theological Seminary Professor Albert Kuzdale, Jr. on aging, the discovery of place and purpose, made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council, and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas at K-A-N-Z-F-M, which is solely responsible for its content. We have place and purpose. I'm Byron Keloz. Part of our problem is that we tend to value people

in our society on the basis of how they function in society. We have a functional evaluation of people. Associate Professor Albert Kuzdale, Jr. of the Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. The Judeo-Christian tradition refutes that. It says that the value of a person is not predicated on the functional capacities of that person, but the value of that person is predicated on an intrinsic value. That person is valued primarily because he or she is human, because he or she stands in a special relationship to God, and that is an inherent value, an intrinsic value that is not to be jeopardized or subverted by any other value

you see. In this century, we have had a glaring example of what can happen to a society when it values a person along functional lines. In Nazi Germany, whole classes of the population were exterminated, or at least there was a program designed to exterminate them, because they were not a functional significance. The mentally retarded were gassed and exterminated. Almost seven million Jews were exterminated in Poland and Germany, because the leaders of Nazi Germany judged them to have no functional significance for the society. We have an experience that we can examine and experience in this century that will tell us what happens when

people are evaluated along functional lines. We must not allow that basis for evaluation to become the standard of values in the United States. There are certainly attendants that have that happen. If it does happen, then we will have succumbed to the tyranny of technology. We will have allowed technology to determine what our values will be, rather than governing technology by values that are built on a much firmer and broader foundation. We're talking about owners less human, part of it dealt with the technology part, and that would eventually, if we believe that myth, it would eventually change our values system toward what you were talking about there,

the functional. Considering that older is less human is not a good thing to move toward. What kinds of things could we do to help move away from that kind of myth? I think that there are a number of things being done in our society now. I think that we are being worn from many quarters of the danger of the tyranny of technology. What we must do is to begin to challenge in our personal lives, in the way we purchase goods, in the way we think of other people. We must begin to challenge the basic assumptions upon which the technological society is structured. We must consciously begin to choose values that challenge the myth that to be young is to be

fully human, to be old is to be less than human. Nazarene Theological Seminary Professor Albert Cousdale Jr. on aging the discovery of place and purpose made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council, and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas at KENZFM, which is solely responsible for its content. Aging the discovery of place and purpose. I'm Byron Kaelos. Advertisers have an immense investment in the maintenance of the myth that to be young is to be fully human, to be old is to be

less than human. Associate Professor Albert Cousdale Jr. of the Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. I think we also have to take a good hard look at the assumptions that underlie American advertising. Just for example, there is one product on the market that promises to eliminate age spots, especially on the hands of women. Two women are talking, one discovers that she has age spots and she is horrified. I as a consumer have to begin to challenge the myth that underlies the sale of that product. People will have to spend a great deal of money to quote, maintain their youth. They won't have to spend nearly so much money to get old

to become old. The advertiser knows that. The producer knows it. So in order to sell the product, it will be necessary to maintain the myth. If the myth collapses, the treasuries or the treasures that pour into the treasury of this cult, the cult of youth will be diminished. In our society, where profit is king, monetary profit, we can't allow that to happen. It is necessary to maintain the myth. I say the myth has to be attacked. That is if we really believe that to be old is to be fully human. Now if we accept the values upon which the myth is predicated, then we don't

have to challenge it. I for one do challenge the myth. I believe that a person is fully human regardless of their age and that the potential for exercising the qualities that we distinguish as being human. Namely, the capacity to love, the capacity to appreciate beauty, the capacity to be compassionate, the capacity to learn and think and explore, the capacity to dream, some of those things. No particular age has a monopoly on those human, essentially human capacities, but if we reduce human to technological values,

then what I consider to be some of those much more human values will be sacrificed. Because the technological values can be fairly easily reduced to a particular age span. Nazarene Theological Seminary Professor Albert Cousdale Jr. on Aging, the discovery of place and purpose made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council, and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, Produced in Pierceville, Kansas at K-A-N-Z FM, which is solely responsible for its content. Aging, the discovery of place and purpose, I'm Byron K. Lose. When we discuss status, we're really

talking about a person having influence or power within his particular group. Instead of being a mysterious thing, usually we can say this or that gives a person status in a society. And one of the things that we can all identify with is that control of resources. For example, if I own land or if I control the way of food production in a society, if I have material goods, there is a tendency for people to give me status. It's almost as though

with what I have control of in terms of resources, I can command respect power influence authority. A second thing that I think is really crucial is whether or not that segment of the population has a monopoly on knowledge. If I'm the only one in a group that knows how to do something, or if I'm the only one who has the wisdom to know what will succeed and what will fail, again, people will respect me, they'll give me my do, so to speak. And we can say, thus I will have status in that group. There are other sources of status. For example, we can look at legislation in our society and we can say that is an indication that at some point the group has agreed perhaps to recognize me in law to guarantee some of my rights.

And therefore I also have power on the basis of those laws that serve to protect me. An example of that kind of thing would be when the women are given the right to vote or the civil rights legislation. Yes, for example, when the 19th amendment was passed and when women were indeed guaranteed the right to vote, it was much more than a law. It was a society saying we recognize your influence. Another source of status, Byron, is whether or not we can provide meaning to other people's lives. Many times, and I'm sure you have known individuals who did not have a lot of control in terms of property or resources and perhaps their knowledge was no longer in high demand. But nevertheless, they still were very much respected. I think you

can even use a word loved by people whose lives they influence tremendously. And then of course, when we're talking about sources of power, I guess we need to mention the physical. In other words, it's not a power that I particularly like to identify with. But let's face it, some people have power because they use might to achieve that power. In other words, I can say to you Byron, I would like for you to do this for me. And if I have a right to initiate activities for you, then I have power over you. And let's say you're a little bit reluctant and you say, I don't think I want to. And I grab you around your throat and say, I think you should do this. Then we're talking about pure physical might. When you look at all of these things and combine them, basically what you're talking about is an individual or a segment of the population's power base.

That's what accords them or gives them status, respect, influence, or raw power. When we start to talk about status valderly or power valderly, Byron, we're just pinpointing a particular segment. And that's for our purposes, that's people over 65. And our question is, well, what gives them power or detracts from their power? And it's the very same things that we talked about earlier. Fort A. State University sociologist Rose Arnold on aging, the discovery of place and purpose made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council, and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas at KANZ FM, which is solely responsible for its content. Aging, the discovery of place and purpose, I'm Byron Kalos. A lot of us entertain this notion

that probably the elderly were much better off in previous societies and among previous groups, and that their position is slowly deteriorating. And that really isn't true. Fort A. State University sociologist Rose Arnold, if we look at societies where they live almost on a hand-to-mouth existence, the elderly did not have a lot of status. And just to illustrate, let's run through why they wouldn't have, hand-to-mouth economy, people who are perhaps

nomadic and who just live basically from what they can glean from the environment, do not have property as such. And so we have effectively wiped out one base of power. The elderly can't influence younger persons in their group by perhaps holding some material goods over their head, those material goods just aren't there. Then, again, in a subsistence economy, the elderly, as they physically age and become less productive, are looked upon by that kind of group as burdens to bear. And you know, when we're talking about a group that lives from day to day, they can't afford the luxury of non-productive members. And so many times you will see in societies like this, real lack of power of the elderly, and also you will see practices such as the abandonment of

the elderly when they are too, perhaps frail to be productive, you will see high rates of infanticide because you see a group like this can't afford excess members at either end of the age continuum. And one very significant thing to determine status of elderly is to look at the economy of that particular group. One thing you were mentioning in conjunction with that was well the population situation you were saying you can't have too many elderly or too many younger people who are non-productive in that kind of society. How does population fit in with this kind of? Okay, well I think you've hit the nail on the head. Basically what we're talking about is we can image this little group or this group. And if they are living with no surplus, they're just living from basically from day to day excess population is a tremendous threat to them. And even

though in a group like that the elderly might possess some really significant knowledge like how to catch animals or how to forage in their nomadic trips that will be sacrificed because you see excess population spells death to the whole group. Take a look at some of the movies where looks at the Indian in the United States and one of course I don't know if those were accurate depictions or not but one tends to see as the elder of the tribe is being a very important person as far as knowledge but perhaps the reason why they were important was that there weren't very many of them and they were really the only key to their spiritual values and the knowledge of the past. Exactly, particularly in a group that as you indicate the American Indian they would rely on oral tradition. You know no one can write that down and pass it on to other generations

but one of the reasons they were revered was that the knowledge they had in their head was not widespread. In fact when many times as they were preparing to die or as they felt the end was near they would take it upon themselves to transfer this knowledge to a selected younger person in the group to keep it going but it was never those things were never things that were terribly widespread among the population. In other words they were selectively handed down and of course ownership of that which was in their head gave them tremendous status and prestige too. Forte State University sociologist Rose Arnold on aging the discovery of place and purpose made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, High Plains Humanities Council and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association produced in Pierceville, Kansas at K-A-N-Z-F-M which is solely responsible for its content.

Aging the discovery of place and purpose I'm Byron Keloz. The status of the elderly is highest or stands a chance of being the highest in agricultural societies. Forte State University sociologist Rose Arnold. The basis of a lot of status is land. In an agricultural society we are talking not about living from hand to mouth but we're talking about accumulating surpluses

and you see those surpluses can go to keep alive or to promote the life of people who perhaps do not directly contribute to their production and so in agricultural society for example not just in America but across cultural studies will show that usually in an agricultural society the status of the elderly will increase or will usually be pretty high for these reasons. Again land ownership is many times maintained by the eldest male in the family and your hope as his son of inheriting that or being able to carry that on pretty much depends on how you are going to treat him. There are some subtle exchanges made there. I own the land. You will one day inherit it. I expect to be cared for as an exchange for that. Also I think in agricultural societies you had an awful lot

of expert knowledge being maintained by the older persons. In other words society didn't change dramatically or rapidly then but change was fairly slow, fairly predictable. There was a premium on knowledge about farming methods, knowledge about let's say canning, knowledge about how to deal with mother nature and all of that gave him tremendous respect. You couldn't go down to your local public library or tap into a computer and get all the information you need or even go down to a school and get the information. Basically the information was in the older of the population because it was experiential kind of information. I have lived for 70 years. I have managed to survive. I have kept the land together. I know how to deal or at least I know something about dealing with

droughts etc. And that's really valuable because that was important knowledge in an agricultural society. In that society then the elderly were treated quite well. What happened when industry technology started taking a hold? What happens to the elderly in a situation like that? As we have moved from a basically agricultural society to an industrial society I don't mean to imply that the status of the elderly has diminished drastically but I think certain sources of their status have been eroded. For example status that comes from land owning is not nearly as significant when a man's five sons can now obtain status from let's say some kind of white collar occupational career. The one source of power that has really eroded in an industrial society is that the elderly

no longer have a monopoly on expert knowledge. Now think about it for a moment there are many skills that are really survival skills today that you know and know well that your grandparents do not know. That's not to say your grandparents know less than you that is to say they know different things than you. And there's such a premium now placed on for example computer literacy. You know that's a very viable skill today and we no longer see that being monopolized by one segment of the population but in fact what we consider to be important knowledge in many respects has changed today and we have eroded the power base of the elderly. Fort East University sociologist Rose Arnold on aging the discovery of place and purpose made possible in part by the

Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council and the many county senior citizens association produced in Pierceville, Kansas at K&Z FM which is solely responsible for its content. Aging, the discovery of place and purpose. I'm Byron Kalos.

We have painted the elderly as being an neglected group, and we bemoan the fact that changes have happened that isolate the elderly, but when you really look at statistics, a lot of these things have been terribly over-exaggerated. 40th St. University Sociologist Rose Arnold. As industrialization occurred, we developed this notion that children tend to move away from home, and we've carried it to its extreme moves, and therefore the elderly do not get to see much of their children. To an extent, geographical mobility has occurred. I'm not arguing with that, but sometimes I think we lose sight of a very simple fact, and that is that most old people today, most people age 65 and over, who have children live close to at least one child and see at least one child very, very often. We have looked at some things that have, in fact, happened.

For example, the number of parents who live in the same household with children, adult children, has declined. So, instead of checking out the facts, we throw up our hands and we say, look, the elderly are being left all alone, when, in fact, separate households have declined, but interaction among parents and children has not declined that much. What about the growth that seems of nursing homes and that sort of thing? Does that mean that, for more nursing homes, that people are deciding to put their grandfather's and grandmothers in homes so that they don't have to care for themselves, or is that not really true, either? Well, Warren, when service, human service bureaucracies, organizations, agencies began to be developed for the elderly. You heard the population many times say that, well, this will be truly the death of the family. You know, people are going to dump their non-productive members.

If we have nursing homes, we're going to immediately fill those nursing homes. And I think that kind of attitude, not only was erroneous, but it didn't put much faith in human nature. Just to show you how this really dire prediction has not been born out, if we go to the figures in 1962 in this country, about 2% of the population over age 65 were bedfast. Could not leave their beds. About 6% were housebound. Now, total, you total those two, and that's 8% of persons who were pretty much confined to home. And that is twice a percentage of people who are in institutions. Okay, now that's 62. If these predictions that people were making about families wanting to dump elderly relatives had been accurate, we would have seen quite an increase in numbers of people institutionalized.

But we can go to the figures in 1975, and we can see 3% of persons over 65 were bedfast. 7% were housebound, which is about 10% who were confined again to the home. Now, that is still twice the number of elderly who have been put in institutions. So, if we look at the cold hard data, it simply does not support the idea that the more opportunities we have to dump people, the quicker we're going to do it. In fact, if you've worked very much with the persons, particularly persons who are dealing with problems that come about by having an elderly, perhaps ill or frail relative, you're aware of the fact that most families go to unreal lengths to work out anything they can to keep them from putting the person, you know, in an institution.

Institutionalization of the elderly is not something, it never has been something that we've done lightly as a people. It is, in most instances, it is the last resort. 4 days to University Sociologist Rose Arnold, on aging, the discovery of place and purpose, made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council, and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas at KENZFM, which is solely responsible for its content. We need to develop a consciousness that I'm talking about in the general population that the elderly are becoming a larger and larger group, and I'm not sure that that is really developed.

4 days to University Sociologist Rose Arnold. I think that we need to look at our population statistics, you know, the demographics of, let's say, our particular area, and this really comes home in Northwest Kansas, where you're talking about some counties in which in excess of 20% of the population is over 65. So first of all, I would call for some sensitivity to the real facts. We shouldn't operate as though we were a youth-oriented society when our elderly are far outnumbering our youth. I think another thing that we perhaps, you know, could do is to recognize that the elderly is a very diverse group. I'm afraid that for different reasons, we have painted the elderly as a absolutely frail group many times when we talk about people over 65.

The first thing that pops into a person's mind is an institutionalized ill or frail elderly isolated individual. And we can talk about extremely wealthy elderly, we can talk about extremely physically fit elderly. We've got a wide, wide range, and so we need to stop treating that segment as though we're a homogenous group. You know, you take people over age 65, and that category that we call the elderly, and you're talking about a tremendously diverse group. So we need to recognize that there are some differences there. I think, basically, if I were going to offer some suggestions as to, you know, what we might do, and this is the basis on which I teach my aging class, is we need to look at what we're doing, our lifestance, who we are, what we feel at middle age, because that is your best indication of who you are and what you're going to be doing, and your stance toward life when you turn elderly.

And so, in many respects, if we want to talk about solving some of the difficulties that we're experiencing with old age, and as we become more elderly, we better be talking about cleaning up our act in middle age, because that's a pattern that's going to determine a lot of our situation when we are elderly. You're talking about things like health and that sort of thing, or a financial position, perhaps, too? Well, even, perhaps, deeper than that, I'm talking about one's picture of how life works. For example, when Lopada did her very excellent study on widowhood, she found that there were widows who seemed to adjust very well. She found that there were widows who had a terribly difficult time following their spouse's death. And when she began to ask the bottom question, what facilitated adjustment for some of them, it was that those who seemed to be able to go on with life and to maintain a fairly satisfying existence, for those that had developed certain skills, for example, and active stance toward life, high self-esteem, felt that they could do things where somewhat independent did not feel so totally, helplessly dependent on another person.

And so, those are things that I would encourage in young people, particularly young women. When you look at the statistics, woman's chance of being widowed is very, very good. And so, my hope would be that we could develop in people's skills that would make their old age a little bit easier. Certainly, some of those are health habits. We know some about health threats, and that is within our control. We can look at widows and widowers who were very, very dependent. In fact, their only lifeline to the world was the other spouse. And we can see how difficult that is when one spouse dies. And we should be encouraging people, perhaps, to take a little bit more different personal stance toward life.

Fort A. State University sociologist Rose Arnold, on aging, the discovery of place and purpose, made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council, and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas, at KENZ FM, which is solely responsible for its content. And so, I would like to thank all of you for your support and support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Aging, the discovery of place and purpose. I'm Byron Kaloes.

All of us give messages to everyone else about how life should be lived. And I see no function whatsoever in giving very different messages to men and women. Fort A. State University sociologist Rose Arnold. When we say that to a man that you are the sole breadwinner, you determine the standard of living for that family. The responsibility for this entire family is on your shoulders. We shouldn't wonder then as a society when that man reaches 65 and perhaps is forced to retire. Why he finds it so difficult to do so? Because we've not encouraged him as a society to develop his family roles or his non-work roles. Okay, likewise, if we say to women that your middle name is Cinderella, you're supposed to be taken care of. You're not responsible for the standard of living. You know, yours is just to take care of family relationships, interpersonal relationships.

And you should depend on your make to make all of the decisions. I think that kind of training is terribly costly training. Because then we see males who, upon no longer working as a question, you know, who am I? I don't know who I am. Or we see females who are put in a position, for example, after widowhood, put in a position of having to fend for themselves. And they're saying, but I can't. I've never learned how. I didn't even know women were expected to do this. And a lot of what I would suggest we get real serious about looking at and changing would fall into that category. You know, the messages you give people should be geared toward making them autonomous people who will assume some kind of responsibility for their own satisfaction in life. And that's a societal problem. That's not just an individual problem. We see today a lot of emphasis on new housing arrangements for the elderly senior citizen centers and that sort of thing.

Is that a trend that can help us as the population stresses the elderly more? I think that's one of the most positive signs on the horizon. Byron, it used to be that you had two choices. You either lived at home or you were institutionalized. And again, the vast majority have lived at home, perhaps with some kind of care. But today, one of the things we need to do is recognize that when we start to talk about that segment over 65, we're talking about a motley crew, a very diverse group. Okay, housing arrangements should reflect that. For some people, institutionalization in a skilled nursing home is absolutely necessary. And you know, I think we should give credit where it's due instead of condemning that kind of thing, we should be extremely pleased that we at least have those available for those who need them. But again, look at housing.

You can now live in congregate housing arrangements. Or what we're attempting to do is to provide means by which a person who is older and prefers to stay in his own home or her own home can do so for longer period of time, visiting nurses, home health. You see, those kinds of social arrangements speak to the diversity of our elderly population. And it gives them some choice. In other words, we're recognizing them for what they are. Instead of treating them as a really homogenous group. Fort A.C. University Sociologist Rose Arnold on Aging, the discovery of place and purpose, made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, the High Plains Humanities Council, and the Finney County Senior Citizens Association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas at KANZ FM, which is solely responsible for its content. Thank you very much.

Aging, the discovery of place and purpose, I'm Byron Kaelos. A person, for example, my age should be very interested in what our societal response to age is and for a variety of reasons. Fort A.C. University Sociologist Rose Arnold. If you cannot extend your care to all members of the human group, somehow the significance of being human seems to lose something.

And so I'm talking about we should be interested for purely humanitarian reasons. These people are part of our group. I would go a little bit further and I would say we should be interested for somewhat selfish reasons. For persons my age, I think we have a vested interest and should be very concerned about our social arrangements for the elderly. Because in my case, in about 20 years, those are no longer going to be academic issues to me. They're going to be very, very real. And another thing, I think that maybe perhaps it's a selfish, but it seems to me that if we will design some kind of arrangements whereby we can better meet the elderly's needs, they will become less of a burden on us. For example, I think perhaps that even more people would assume responsibility for their elderly mother, elderly father, if they had any kind of relief. You know, when you make that decision, Byron, to take care of someone, let's say that is bad fast, it's kind of a 24 hour day decision.

Now, if we can come up with arrangements to relieve family members somewhat, to give them a little time out, I think what you'll see is less resentment, more willingness to assume that kind of responsibility. And you'll see on the whole just a really improved condition. One of the things that again, it's kind of an alternative that we're developing in response to more of our population becoming old is a day care movement. And while this isn't exactly new, it is certainly picking up speed. And day cares we're defining it here. Look at what a boon that would be to me if I had made the decision to keep my frail perhaps very elderly mother with me. It would mean that I can still assume that kind of responsibility that will make me feel good about myself, but it means that I still will have some outlet. I still will have a little bit of relief. And again, probably the biggest advantage of day care arrangements are that it allows for some stimulation for the elderly person outside the immediate family.

And so, you know, the more reflective we've become about elderly and the more alternatives we'll develop, I think the better we'll be able to deal with this. And perhaps we'll reach a point where we will not automatically equate the word elderly with problem. Fort A. State University sociologist Rose Arnold on aging, the discovery of place and purpose made possible in part by the Kansas Committee for the Humanities, I blame Humanities Council and the many counties in your citizens association, produced in Pierceville, Kansas at KANZ FM, which is solely responsible for its content.