A note to 2022: A bit of age-old wisdom to share with next year’s model

My missive to the caller year:

So you person a caller gig. Like immoderate newbie replacing an unpopular employee, 2021 successful your case, you are nether big-time pressure. Everyone wants thing from you.

Cure the virus. Bolster the economy. Lower inflation. Get everyone vaccinated. Defend close not to beryllium vaccinated.

I’m really feeling a small atrocious for you.

I cognize you person a batch connected your plate, but I person a favour to ask. I whitethorn beryllium a small biased connected this subject, but tin we speech astir elder issues?

I americium greatly disturbed by a video that popped up connected my Facebook page. There was a  grandma crying due to the fact that her grandchildren wouldn’t instrumentality a locomotion with her.

“You look excessively old,” they told her.

Grandma’s solution was a mini makeover. The adjacent scenes amusement a constitution creator cautiously concealing grandma’s facial flaws arsenic she called them. In different words, covering up immoderate signs of aging. A caller hairdo and colour finished up the project. Now we spot grandma smiling and saying her grandchildren are blessed to locomotion with her due to the fact that she looks truthful good.

My archetypal absorption was anger. We lone emotion grandmas who look good? If younger looking is good, older indispensable beryllium bad?

What motivated the instauration of the video? Selling products and services, I guess. But I ideate that the large motivator was that they knew it would work. People respond to marque caller and shiny, arsenic successful younger.

It is troubling that scenarios similar this are capable to play retired without overmuch thought fixed to their significance.

I started reasoning astir my Grandma Sarah who ne'er had connected a hint of marque up and wore her agelong achromatic hairsbreadth successful a bun. I ne'er thought astir her age. She was conscionable grandma, afloat of hugs and comfortableness and achromatic and achromatic cookies with gangly glasses of beverage waiting connected her wide room model sill successful her tiny Bronx apartment.

My grandma was flimsy of built and a small bent implicit adjacent erstwhile I was young. She did not talk English. The children successful the video would not person wanted to beryllium seen with her. And they each would person missed out.

Yes, I cognize the communicative connected that video wasn’t true. But it could person been. That’s what I americium asking of you, twelvemonth 2022. Let’s bash better.

Email patriciabunin@sbcglobal.net travel her connected Twitter @patriciabunin