By Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

If Nike targeted an older crowd, would the company change its tagline to “Just be it?”

Dr. William Thomas seems to think so.

Internationally known geriatrician, author, and professor and distinguished fellow at The Erickson School of Aging Studies, Management and Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Dr. Thomas says when people stop doing and start being, they graduate from adulthood to “elderhood.” They become the valuable, insightful, and influential people in a community.

Being—to Thomas—means you throw away the to-do list and stop organizing your life around doing, getting, and having. Let the wisdom you gained from all that doing sink in and influence younger members of society.

But do you have to stop doing everything to start being?

Balance of being
Albert Johnston, AARP president of the Severna Park, Md., chapter, says no. Being does not mean a person exists sans activity or interaction. To him, being means acting for the betterment of the community.

Johnston sits on the AARP legislative committee and mentors in the Severna Park area. He uses the knowledge, experience, and life lessons he learned as a lawyer, a family member, and a friend to contribute to his community.

Retirement refined
“Being an active elder as opposed to a passive elder is the ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction,” he said after Thomas’s lecture at a local community college in March.“When I got to 65 I said, ‘Okay, that’s it. Now let’s go on and be part of, as [Thomas] described it, the older community.”

Johnston arrived at “elderhood” at age 65. Another audience member found it at 70 and another at 62. Their model may be less radical than the one Thomas describes, but they all helped incorporate features of it into the retirement lifestyle of today.

Today’s generation of retirees brought us civil rights, national wealth in the arts and commerce, and tremendous developments in science and technology.