You Could Live a Long Time - Dundurn

You Could Live a Long Time

Are You Ready?

Published March 2010

Description

Are you ready to live a long time, or do you dread it? Recent medical advances mean we could live longer, but doesn’t guarantee the quality of that life. In the words of one senior, "We’re not living longer, we’re dying longer."

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Getting older doesn’t have to mean living a limited life. Author Lyndsay Green has interviewed forty successful seniors to talk not just about the problems of old age but its strength and benefits.

These seniors were from all walks of life and from all over the country, living in Victoria, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal, Kingston and Halifax, aged 75 to 100. They have been identified as the self-reliant seniors we would like to be and they share their wisdom and strategies for independent and happy living. The book combines their advice with cutting edge research, to arrive at specific suggestions for what we should be doing now to prepare for old age, and includes resources to help us implement the advice, including:

  • Money isn’t everything, and won’t cure ill-health or loneliness.
  • Cultivate new friendships now.
  • To keep your dignity, give up your pride.
  • You need a work plan, instead of a retirement plan
  • To keep a home, consider leaving your house.
  • If you push too hard to stay young you’ll get old faster.

The unique message is that we should not try to avoid old age. Instead of trying to do the impossible to stay forever young, Green comes to the radical conclusion that in order to get as much as possible out of our old age we will need to embrace it.

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Contributors

Lyndsay Green

Lyndsay Green is a sociologist who has spent her career helping people use communications technologies for learning, working with groups as diverse as the World Bank, the National Film Board, and the Inuit of Canada. She is Chair of the Board of Arts for Children and Youth, and Chair of the Advisory Board of the University of Toronto Art Centre.

Book Details

Paperback
March 2010
5.25x7.75 in
224 pp
9780887625275
ePub
March 2010
-
224 pp
9780887628191