From a Three-Act to a Four-Act Play.
Twentieth century social scientists used to look at life as three sets of 8,000 days, the first ending around your 21st birthday, the second ending in your mid-forties when your “crisis” had taken hold, and the last act ending around your sixty-fifth birthday when you were retiring and withdrawing from an active role in society.
But, today, if you make it to sixty-five, there’s a better than 50% chance you’ll make it past eighty-five, and you’re more likely to be active (and not in seclusion) during this fourth act of 8,000 days. In fact, the average age of when someone went into a nursing home when I was born (1960) was 65. Today, it’s almost two decades later.
In this New Yorker article from last year, Adam Gopnik explores what it means to be younger longer, asking the question, “Why don’t we take that one-third (extra 8,000 days) and create new stories, new rituals, new mythologies for people as they age?”
What will you do with your extra 8,000 days?
