‘The Age Sage” podcast was birthed out of the newspaper and magazine column called “Retiring Retirement.”
For over 30 years, the column ran in various publications and highlighted the passions and accomplishments of people in their post-60 years.
Now renamed “The Age Sage,” it was anything but a trip down Memory Lane.
“Retiring Retirement” countered the “over the hill” and “out to pasture” narrative that has plagued our elders all along – perhaps going back thousands of years as evidenced in this scripture:
Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. (2 Kings 2:23,24 NKJV)
Worse yet was King Solomon’s son, Rehoboam who caused a permanent civil war:
But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men and instead asked the opinion of the young men who had grown up with him and were now his advisers. (1 Kings 12:8 NLT)
“Retiring Retirement” and “The Age Sage” were never meant to spark generational wars but rather bring to light that there’s no strength like intergenerational power. Just take a look at the families that have bridged the gap of elders and their progeny.
The first column I ever wrote was on the famed Andy Rooney, who was in his 70s and was hesitant about giving me the interview because he didn’t want to be seen as “old.”
If the most famous writer in America was fearful of the stigma of being a senior, our culture somehow gave him the message that he would be put out to pasture if he proudly embraced being an “elder spokesman.” He ended up writing and being a staple of “60 Minutes” for many more years.
What is fascinating and common among these inspired-retired that I interview is their ability and desire to embrace something new; to go off in a new direction and meet the challenge of transition head-on.
The New Year presents more than a flip of the calendar. It is telling you that you are getting older.
Will you see the New Year as a curse or an invitation?
Robert J. LaCosta hosts “The Age Sage,” which is free on your podcast platform of choice on your phone or computer. You may reach him at [email protected] or by calling 518-435-1250.