Beware of condescending to an "almost senior"

While my brother and sister-in-law were visiting here last month, we decided to visit the zoo. My brother approached the young person in the ticket booth and simply said, "Three". After receiving the tickets he realized that, without making any request, he had received two "senior" tickets and one regular ticket. None of us are yet 65. Of course, we laughed about which two of us the young ticket seller deemed to be "seniors".

Yesterday afternoon I found myself unreasonably angry for a couple of hours. I realized my illogical anger was, in part, due to a thread on Facebook. There was a brief message about water aerobics and about ten people commented on it. Maybe two of the commentators have first-hand knowledge of water aerobics, but the others said all sorts of things that showed no accurate understanding of this form of exercise.

Now, I'm an avid fan of water aerobics and have participated in it for at least twenty years. One of the things I really looked forward to in retirement was the ability to exercise in this wonderful way all year long. As with any form of exercise, it's what you put into it that determines what you get out of it. I work really hard in the pool, but I do occasionally see someone who is chatting and just moving a bit. Go to any other type of exercise class and you'll also see some people really working hard and others hardly working.

I think water aerobics gets a bad rap because it probably began in places like Sun City in Arizona where it catered to senior citizens in a hot climate looking for "lite" physical activities. Somehow Grandma Wilhemina, the Sun Citian, was portrayed as"cute" while exercising in the water and the water aerobics "bad rap" began. Adding to the bad image is that it is difficult for a working adult to participate regularly in water aerobics in a colder climate because you need (a) an indoor pool and (b) classes offered at times that fit into a working schedule. Unfortunately it's also true that not all teachers are certified and/or really know how to provide an energetic work-out. Water aerobics is also confused with water therapy classes which are wonderfully designed for people who have bad arthritis or are recovering from joint replacement.

As I "stewed" yesterday, I realized that I wasn't angry about water aerobics per se--although it is misunderstood. I was angry because I perceived ageism in the Facebook comments. Even though we laughed about the zoo tickets, that was also a form of ageism.

I am the oldest you can be to be considered a "baby boomer". Do the math and you'll realize that next February I'll be among the first "boomers" to reach Social Security age.

And, I'm traveling there kicking and screaming.

To me, senior citizens are the elderly people I see at my mother's nursing home. They are also the vibrant, active 80 and 90-year-olds I know who are living independently. They have all taught me incredible lessons in recent years. The most important lesson is how wise they are and how much fun they can be--and how awful it is to treat these vibrant people with condescension.

I've got twenty five years or so until I get to their ages. Maybe then I'll consider myself a senior citizen. And I'm going to fight condescension all the way!

Until then I'm going to pant and sweat my way through water aerobics and, maybe next time I get an unrequested senior discount, I'll give it back.

Maybe.