First Time Journey in the Blogosphere

I like the word blogosphere because for some reason it makes me think of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea—traveling in a strange contraption into an exciting new world.

And that just naturally makes me think of child’s play, which continues to be marvelous at any age. People may say “that’s just child’s play” about something that is very easy to do. Sure, child’s play is easy-- guided more by imagination than by fixed rules. Remember that magical sense of wonder, when everything else faded back until nothing remained but gazing at the amazing shapes of clouds changing in the sky, or the pattern of fireflies in the dark, or the moment of throwing the ball into the air, or the smell of the garden near the old house after rain?

Sage’s play is very similar to child’s play. It’s just that there are years of lived experience stirred into the sauce. In the later years, if one is just lucky or chooses to make it so on purpose, there are moments or hours when time opens out, slowing down into the eternal moment as it did in childhood. Then, the inherent magic shows itself.

Old people with all their faculties quite intact thank you, can be childlike, spontaneous, free of conventional rules, absorbed in the magic of the moment. This is one of the unsung beauties of aging, and I want to sing about it some here.

Sage’s play can take many forms, from social change through creative expression, nurturing, mentoring, passing on the stories and the more invisible work of healing, integrating life experience and letting go.

I want to affirm the profound value of age and old people to individuals and society. I want to explore the benefits of creativity and wellness in age. I want to participate in changing our cultural perspective on age and aging to a happier, more real and respectful one.

That’s why I have named my blog Sage’s Play. Here's to making the most of the beautiful experience of being alive.

BONUS!
The Pew Research Center recently published an interesting study that describes how younger people view old age, what they expect from their own old age, and how their beliefs or ideas differ from the reality of older adults’ experience.

Generally, younger adults have unrealistic beliefs regarding the prevalence of memory loss, inability to drive and sexuality in age. In other words, older people have better minds, drive more cars and have more sex than younger people believe they do. (But I’m not telling you anything new, am I?) Fascinating.

http://pewsocialtrends.org/pubs/736/getting-old-in-america

P.S. Don’t buy into the decline model of aging! And if you don’t know what that means, stay tuned.