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To age requires no effort at all. To age with grace, well that’s something entirely different. We all know and have heard how disposable our old people are. We walk past them, take little notice and have little regard. Now that I am old, I figured I should have more empathy and understanding of my peeps. If I don’t make friends with old age, I’ll have no one to talk to.

I have always been impressed with people who have a comfort level with the fragility of old age. I don’t have any indictments on youth dismissing age, and it is futile acts to have a generation of puppies find compassion for the elderly. That is not to say that there are not young people who have a fondness and respect for the aged, however it’s the exception, not the rule. No need to try and excavate empathy from our youth, better then to work on what it means to age with grace. Grace knows how to ride the ebbs and flows and all the transitions, and to always be appropriate to the times.

Years ago, I had this idea to take a group of people (Actors/Singers) out to the old actors' home -Motion Picture & Television in Woodland Hills, to sing Christmas Carols. We would do this acapella with just a harmonica to get us on key. I collected some sing along favorites.

I had never even been invited to an old person sing-along (Is there such a thing?) much less come up with this idea myself and then to orchestrate it. I have always been afraid of old people. I would go out of my way to avoid them. They scared me right down to their boney fingers, and I was certain if I shook hands with one of them, I would end up holding a disembodied hand. I was afraid of broken hips, labored breathing and long hairs growing in all the wrong places. So to come up wit...

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...d when some “Way of Being” is bankrupt and some other behavior is looking to take its rightful place. None of us ever think we are going to get old. My generation was known as “The Young Generation” and we were never going to age. We branded ourselves with the tag line “Don’t Trust Anyone Over Thirty”, but since Mick Jagger is now over 70, we have had to amend that number.

To age gracefully is to become more aware; more aware of your impact, both good and bad; to accept that which you will never be and to contribute what was always meant to be; to have nostalgic conversations with old friends while surrounding yourself with young people. To become more attentive to your health and less attentive to your vanity. To celebrate your birthday, announcing your actual age.

It is not an easy to age with grace, but it’s actually much harder to attempt to turn