One of the great rewards of being here at AGEIST is knowing we are positively impacting lives. We began almost 8 years ago as a counterpoint to the pervasive fear-based messaging around people our age. When we looked at the landscape of messaging aimed at people our age, we were struck by how relentlessly it portrayed us as a problem in need of a solution. Personally speaking, I don’t feel like a problem, and I resent messaging that infantilizes me and my friends. Our goal is to show people living in a vital, vivid manner, relevant and culturally engaged, and the 360 system around living in this way. We don’t tell people how to live, that is a personal choice; our mission is to enlarge the menu of what may be possible.
Our social channels have grown massively in the last year, as has our podcast SuperAge and the readership of this newsletter. For all of you who are new to us, welcome! We are grateful for your attention and hope to be useful and inspiring to you.
This week we received a couple of wonderful emails. These are the sort of messages that let us know we are on the right track. We also get hate mail, which sort of astonishes me but, hey, some people have bad days and they need someone to take it out on. We are ok with that, too.
“I absolutely love your passion for your work. I’ve truly enjoyed looking through ageist.com and have listened to 3 podcast episodes of yours this past weekend. I love what you’ve created. You are so great at it! You may not realize how much of an inspiration you are to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” R.O. Utah
“I’m a Pilates teacher and dressage rider. I didn’t start teaching Pilates until I was 58; I’m now 64, my classes are completely full, mainly people 50 and over, I also teach online. I think everyone in the world should do Pilates! I’ve got a young Spanish horse that I’m planning on competing this year. I’ve never considered my age to be an obstacle; I would never consider going to any activity designed for “seniors” — I find it condescending in the extreme. I am totally fed up with people who consider themselves washed up and over the hill once they reach 50 and equally fed up with the media, the medical profession, etc promoting this idea!!!!! Rant over! I’ve just discovered your podcast and it’s brilliant, thank you very much!” A.B., location unknown.
All of you out there contribute to making me a better person — gotta walk the talk.
Onward and upward,
David
