Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Baby Boomers in Bloom


Last week, I reviewed Kay Marshall Strom's newest book The Second-Half Adventure: Don’t Just Retire--Use Your Time, Skills & Resources to Change the World.  This week, she's my guest-blogger.  To find out more about Kay--for starters, she's the author of 36 published books and an in-demand speaker--check out her website (kaystrom.com) and/or her blog (kaystrom.wordpress.com). 


Baby Boomers in Bloom

Inside every baby boomer zipping toward senior-dom is a thirty-five-year-old asking, “Hey, what happened?”  



Life, that’s what.    


We who vowed to stay forever young, who promised never to trust anyone over thirty, are actually talking about retirement.  But that doesn’t mean our generation has given up looking for ways to change the world.  The leading edge of the boomer generation—the first 3 million of us—is marching into seniorhood in great style—healthy, well-educated, and still filled with ambition.  (Though somehow, that word “senior” just doesn’t seem to fit a generation as likely to be found zipping around Singapore on a motorcycle as pushing back in a recliner for an evening of TV.)    


Because of who and what baby boomers are, just about every organization in the country is eyeing them. That’s because everyone sees a whole skilled, mature, experienced could-be volunteer work force.  And those organizations can’t wait to tap into that unprecedented reservoir of knowledge and wisdom and energy and experience at the affordable price of—well, free!  


I had the great honor of interviewing almost fifty blooming boomers for my book, The Second-Half Adventure: Don’t Just Retire-Use Your Time, Skills & Resources to Change The World.  These true adventurers ranged from a Viet Nam vet artist to a financial counselor who grew up in a Mafia family, from an unassuming quilter to an airline pilot, from a launch engineer to a substitute school teacher, from a businessman who had gone bankrupt to a tenured college professor, from a medical doctor to a bakery truck driver, from an engineer to a never-employed grandma.  These second-halfers were involved in adventures all over the world, including in their own backyards.  One worked at a computer on his kitchen table.    


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”  Never in their lives have baby boomers been willing to stay silent about things that matter to them. And they are not about to start in their second half!

10 comments:

  1. "What happened?" I like that!

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  2. Lovely guest blog. As I was recuperating from cancer many years ago I read a Deepak Chopra book. In it he made the point that if we lived in Roman times, we would have had but about 40 years. Now we live to 80 and beyond we have two lifetimes. I though, yeah!!! And we don't have to spend the first 22 years of the second life getting educated. That makes three.

    That's when I followed my dream and wrote my first novel, This Is the Place. It went on to win eight awards and since then I've become a poet, too.

    Isn't life--all of it--just grand!

    Best,
    Carolyn Howard-Johnson
    www.carolynhoward-johnson.com

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  3. Retirement?? What is that ?? from a 20 something stuck in a 40 something body here.. I am not sure I will ever reitre (not that it will be an option any time too soon.) I am one of those folks that will probably be doing something till we get too far in to life to be able too.

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  4. I'm with you, Carolyn & CE!

    P.S. CE--Saw on one of your blogs that you're a Discovery Channel/Science Channel geek. Me, too. Oh, and my favorite section of the NYTimes is the Tues. science section.

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  5. Anonymous5:53 PM

    Interesting twist on a MLK quote. While I do agree boomers have never been silent on issues that mattered to them, I also believe the reason so many boomer women are unhappy at midlife is because they spent so many years suffering in silence. They spent time and enrgy doing everything for everyone else and have yet to bloom.

    Beverly Mahone
    Beverly Mahone

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  6. I agree, Beverly. Even if women weren't suffering, they were often silent. Much of what defying gravity is about is finding a voice.

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    ReplyDelete
  8. hi prill, nice blog & good post. You have beautifully maintained it, you must try this website which really helps to increase your traffic. hope u have a wonderful day & awaiting for more new post. Keep Blogging!

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  9. I agree with What Prill said. Afterall, Finding voice is what gravity is all about!

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  10. Yup, that's right. Finding voice is what defying gravity is all about!

    ReplyDelete