48 • October 2011 • CARING

Will you still need me, will you still feed me,When I’m 64?

Paul McCartney still has wings, and he can still wow the crowds. Over a million fans flocked to hear him when he toured the world last year. This year he’s making two new records and giving more shows in South America and the U.S. Maybe you’re amazed that Paul and his band are still on the run, but Paul loves to watch the fans twist and shout. “Everyone likes to be appreciated,” he says, “so it is quite a thrill for us all in the band to see the audience go so bonkers,” and it’s not a thrill he intends to give up any time soon.1 “I’m not retiring,” says the 68-year-old former Beatle. “As long as people want to come and hear me, I’ll probably be doing this” — not what you would have thought you’d hear from the 16-year-old who wrote “When I’m 64.”

Paul envisioned the golden years as a time of mending fuses, knitting, and taking rides. But he’s proof that there can be a lot more to the latter part of life. So

are many other late bloomers who’ve thrived into their senior years, among them George Burns, whose career in show biz lasted over nine decades. “I can do anything now at age 90 that I could do when I was 18,” he once joked, “which shows you how pathetic I was at 18.”2 Indeed, ability is ageless; it’s never too late to create something new. And baby boomers need to realize this as they face the challenges that come with

a longer life. Their generation grew up listening to Paul’s ode to old age, and there’s a good chance they won’t take no to the doleful questions

he asked.The 78 million baby boomers grew up challenging their

parents’ values, and they’re unlike their parents in several other ways. They are in better health, and half of those over 65 now define themselves as middle-aged or young. Unlike previous generations, their views have been broadened by the Internet and mass media. They are more educated and expect more from life. They have not experienced the

same struggles, including those of the Great Depression,

Late Bloomers & Baby Boomers: Success in the Second Act of LifeBy Lisa Yarkony, PhD

CARING • October 2011 • 49

as their parents did, but they face new challenges.3 Many boomers have accumulated large debts while saving little, and they could break the back of Social Security when they reap retirement benefits in coming decades.4

So it’s crucial that boomers take on some of the costs that come with living longer, and they can do it, despite some of the stresses and strains they face. Boomers have the potential to redefine aging. They can become the healthiest, most productive, and most creative generation in history if they continue to grow and bloom. It’s not something they can learn from medical science, which has focused on how to extend life but hasn’t set out a vision of what to do with the extra years.5 Instead, boomers can look to those who’ve shown that the key to a longer, fuller life is staying active, working, undertaking creative efforts, and reaching out to others.6 Many men and women have already led the way by continuing to bloom long after the normal retirement age.

Not everyone peaks at the same time, though we tend to associate creativity with youth. Take the examples of Cézanne and Picasso, as one Chicago economist did. A few years back, Professor David Galenson decided to compare the prices paid for paintings by the two artists with the ages at which they created those works, leading to some intriguing results. A painting done by Picasso in his mid-twenties was worth, Galenson found, about four times as much as a painting done in his sixties. The opposite was true for Cézanne. The paintings he created in his mid-sixties were valued 15 times more than the paintings he created as a young man.7

“Cézanne had a particular vision of the world that was so complex and rich that it would take more than one

lifetime to explore,” says Professor Dean Keith Simonton, a researcher at the University of California Davis who studies the link between age and creativity. “So he kept going,” and the trick for boomers is to figure out how to be like Cézanne. “Usually the people who keep going are the ones who are open to new experiences,” Simonton explains. “They’re the ones who do something different, take a risk, try to believe in the future tense.”8 They confront the notion of late blooming by asking: late for what?9

Is it ever too late to bring the world great music? Absolutely not, and you can forget the old joke about Mozart: “When he was your age, he was dead.”10 Pianist Arthur Rubenstein was 89 when he gave a stunning recital at Carnegie Hall. Placido Domingo is 70 and he sounded superb when he took the stage this year at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. “Why I am still able to sing,” he muses, “this is a big mystery to me.” But he does know how much he loves music and opera, which he regards as “almost an addiction.”11 This sense of passion has also led Elliot Carter to keep writing music at the age of 103. When he turned 100, he said, “Each of my pieces is an adventure. Complicated pieces, I’ve done that; now I’m going to try something new.”12

The quest to be creative has also led some famous seniors to produce great architecture and art. Michelangelo was 88 when he did architectural plans for the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Claude Monet was going blind when he completed the paintings of water lilies that would absorb him until his death at 86. Frank Lloyd Wright was 89 when

Boomers have the potential to redefine aging. They can become the healthiest, most productive, and most creative generation in history if they continue to grow and bloom.

50 • October 2011 • CARING

he finished the Guggenheim Museum. Philip Johnson, architect of the Glass House, was still designing at 94 and said, “If I’m going to enjoy everything, I’ve got to enjoy being old, don’t I?”13 Grandma Moses was 76 when she took up painting as a hobby, after arthritis made her unable to embroider. By the time she died at 101, she had produced over 1,500 works of art and gained international fame.

Other famous women have shown that age doesn’t stop you having va-va-voom. Mae West starred in a film at 85. Betty White, the Golden Girl, has a new sitcom, she just released a book called If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t), and she’s starring in a campaign for AARP. Her message: Get over your age. “A lotta people, they reach a certain age,” she explains, “and they say, ‘Oh well, no, I’m too old for this, too old for that.’ You’re never too old for anything.”15

Age sure won’t stop you from lighting up the silver screen. Paul Newman was 77 when he appeared in “Road to Perdition,” a role that got him nominated for an Academy Award. George Burns was 80 when “The Sunshine Boys” earned him an Oscar. Another actor who has enjoyed remarkable creative longevity is Clint Eastwood. Starting with “Unforgiven” when he was 62, Eastwood directed five masterpieces, including two that won the Academy Award. At 78, he starred in “Gran Torino,” becoming the oldest leading man to reach number one in weekend box office.16 “Everybody wonders why I continue working at this stage,” Eastwood says. “I keep working because there’s always new stories. As long as people want me to tell them, I’ll be there doing them.”17

That’s fine for a movie star to say. But can you become a million-dollar baby when you’re just a regular Joe who’s past the midpoint of life? Ray Kroc was 52 and a milkshake-machine salesman when he opened his first McDonald’s. When he bought out the franchise he was 58. Harland Sanders of KFC fame was 66 when he launched an empire based on his secret blend of herbs and spices. Less than 10 years later, he sold the company for about two million bucks but remained at KFC as a consultant. Until he died at 90, the Colonel travelled 250,000 miles a year visiting KFC restaurants worldwide. Sometimes he would tour a KFC franchise and gripe that the mashed potatoes tasted like “wallpaper paste” if they didn’t live up to the standards he had set.18

Sanders never lost his sizzle or his passion for his work, and many baby boomers take the same approach. Between 70 and 75 percent of baby boomers enjoy their work, and

only 15 percent say they would quit entirely if they could.19 Even the rich now reject the idea of hanging

it up for good. When Barclay’s Wealth polled

2,000 affluent people last year, 60 percent of those with a net worth of $15 million or more said they planned to keep on working no matter what their age. While previous generations looked on work as a necessary evil, the wealthy now embrace work as part of who they are. But that doesn’t mean they want to continue doing what they’ve done for decades. 20 Instead, many retirees plan on using their exper-tise to make a difference.

Half of Americans ages 50 to 70 want to find work with a social impact after their primary career ends, and there will be plenty of demand for their skills. Nonprofit orga-nizations are likely to face a leadership deficit in the next decade, so boomers should prepare. The Serve America Act offers “encore” fellowships for those 55 and up to serve in one-year management and leadership positions with nonprofit organizations. Roughly 30 academic programs grant master’s degrees in nonprofit study. A growing number of community colleges offer programs tailored to students 50 and older who want to retrain for jobs in educa-tion, social services, and health care.21

Other boomers choose to renew themselves through creative arts like painting, writing, and music. In response, museums, conservatories, and performing arts centers have developed programs for older adults. In 2008, the National Endowment for the Arts launched the Creativity and Aging in America grant program, based on substan-tial data showing that creativity has a powerful anti-aging effect on the body and mind.22 “Art has been in the soul of the species since the time of the cave people,” said Dr. Gene Cohen, founder of the National Institute of Mental Health’s Center on Aging. “So while you may not stick to an exercise program, you may stick to an art program — which will not only give you a psychological boost, but also a brain boost.” 23

“It’s never too late to start, and it’s always too soon to stop,” according to Walter Bortz, an 80-year-old doctor who runs marathons and writes books about aging with titles like Dare to be 100 and The Roadmap to 100.24 “Aging is a self-fulfilling prophesy,” this ancient marathoner contends. “If we dread growing old, thinking of it as a time of forget-fulness and physical deterioration, then it is likely to be just that. On the other hand, if we expect it to be full of energy and anticipate that our lives will be rich with new adven-tures and insight, then that is the likely reality. We prescribe who we are. We prescribe who we are to become.”25

Someone who takes precisely this approach is my 82-year-old mother, Winnie Klotz. At 72, she retired after 30 years as the official photographer of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where her pictures captured the spirit of great singers like Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, and

CARING • October 2011 • 51

Beverly Sills (and made some hefty sopranos look slimmer much to their great delight). Then she embarked on a career as a lecturer on opera at venues like the Harvard Club, the Smithsonian, and the National Museum for Women in the Arts. Audiences loved to watch her slide presentations about every aspect of the opera world from creation to performance and all the technical stuff in between.”

My mom has continued to give talks about opera at colleges, museums, and theaters since moving to Santa Fe about five years back. And recently, she began learning Spanish, along with the German and Italian that she’s studied for decades. When she comes back from her Spanish lessons at a local college, she sometimes calls me up, and she’s like an excited kid while she tells me how well she did in class. Her mind is as sharp as ever. Her step is still sure during the two-mile walk that she takes every morning, even when the mercury dips into the single digits and the wind whips across the flat New Mexico desert.

Granted, she has her little aches and pains, but she still sees life as a wondrous adventure where she can spread her wings. “Whenever anyone asks me to do anything,” she recently told me, “I say sure. Then I try to do the impos-sible,” as can we all — even when we’re in the second act of life. So keep moving ahead like the many late bloomers who’ve shown that age just doesn’t matter when it comes to success. If you do, you won’t sing sad songs of longing for yesterday when all your troubles seemed so far away. Instead you, too, will have wings to fly, whether you’re 16 or 64.

References1 “Fans Q&A with Paul,” August 12, 2010, Montreal, Canada. http://www.

paulmccartney.com/news.php#/2002/2010-08.2 “Can we live to 150?” Popular Science 243 (5): 77-82.3 Mary Finn Maples and Paul C. Abney. “Baby boomers mature and gerontological

counseling comes of age.” Journal of Counseling & Development 84 (Winter 2006): 3-9.

4 Ken Dychtwald. “Late bloomers.” San Francisco Chronicle, 24 October 1999.5 Ibid.6 Mary Finn Maples and Paul C. Abney, 2006.7 Malcolm Gladwell. “Late bloomers.” New Yorker, October 20, 2008. http://

www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/20/081020fa_fact_gladwell.8 Michelle Slatalla. “A play date with my imagination.” New York Times, 4

June 2009. 9 Scott Barry Kaufmann. “Confessions of a late bloomer.” Psychology

Today, November 1, 2008. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200810/confessions-late-bloomer.

10 Glenn Collins. “Exploring the past: creativity in old age.” New York Times, 2 March 1981.

11 Anne Midgette. “Placido Domingo: At age 70, a voice for the age.” Washington Post, 29 April 2011.

12 Anna Kuchment. “Creativity and aging.” Newsweek, December 10, 2008. http://www.newsweek.com/2008/12/09/creativity-and-aging.html.

13 Roy Hoffman. “Working past 90.” Fortune 142 (11): 364-378.14 Helena de Bertodano. “Sex and the octogenarian.” Telegraph (UK), 26 June

2003.15 “The white hot Betty White.” CBS News, May 8, 2011. http://www.cbsnews.com/

stories/2011/05/08/sunday/main20060893.shtml.16 Timothy Egan. “Second-act aces.” New York Times, 30 June 2010.17 “The Eastwood Factor” (Extended Edition). [DVD]. Warner Home Video. June

1, 2010.18 “Milestones.” Time, December 29, 1980. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/

article/0,9171,922291,00.html. 19 Mary Finn Maples and Paul C. Abney, 2006.20 Kerry Hannon. “Writing new chapters.” Forbes, April 11, 2011. http://www.

forbes.com/forbes/2011/0411/retirement-baby-boomers-working-social-security-unretirement.html.

21 Kerry Hannon. “A second act with purpose; baby boomers are redefining retire-ment with passion-driven encore careers.” U.S. News & World Report 146 (9): 78.

22 Gay Hanna and Susan Perlstein. “Creativity matters: arts and aging in America.” Americans for the Arts, September 2008. http://www.creativeaging.org/storage/Creativity%20Matters%20AFTA%20Monograph%209%2008.pdf.

23 Nancy Monson. “Creativity cracks the aging code.” Jewish Journal, March 23, 2010. http://www.jewishjournal.com/50_Plus/article/creativity_cracks_the_aging_code_20100323/.

24 Amby Burfoot. “Walter Bortz — it’s never too late to start, and it’s always too soon to stop.” Runner’s World, April 12, 2010. http://footloose.runnersworld.com/2010/04/walter-bortz-its-never-too-late-to-start-and-its-always-too-soon-to-stop.html.

25 Mary Finn Maples and Paul C. Abney, 2006.

About the Author: Lisa Yarkony, PhD, is a senior writer and editor with CARING Magazine. She has expertise in health systems both past and present. She can be reached at lisa@nahc.org.