Conclusions

Maybe the most important idea to take away from this is that the future really does start now. You are never too old to plan, to educate yourself and make good decisions. And one key to happiness, at any age, but especially for seniors, is to acknowledge how precious life really is. Make the most of it, and share it with others!

Expert: Msgr. Charles Fahey

Msgr. Charles Fahey is a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse where he served in parishes and Catholic Charities from 1959 until 1979. Soon after, he became the Director of Fordham University's Third Age Center, known for its work in public policy and the conceptualization of the Third Age." He was named the University's Marie Ward Doty Professor of Aging Studies in 1980, and he became the Center's Senior Associate in 1992. In addition to his commitment to the Center, Monsignor also serves as a program officer for the Milbank Memorial Fund.

Additionally, Monsignor was a member of the Holy See's delegation to the 1982 United Nations World Assembly on Aging. He also served on the boards of the Catholic Health Association, the National Council on Aging, the Sisters of Mercy Health Care System (St. Louis) and the Daughters of Charity National Health System. He was a board member and President of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, Catholic Charities USA, and the American Association of Homes for the Aging. Currently, he is a member of the national Board of the Volunteers of America and the American Foundation for Aging Research.

Expert: George Vaillant, M.D.

George E. Vaillant, M.D., is a widely respected researcher, a psychiatrist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and a professor at the Harvard Medical School. He is also the author of several books, including Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life, Adaptation to Life, Wisdom of the Ego, and the classic The Natural History of Alcoholism.

Dr. Vaillant's particular study of adult development, as illuminated in his book, Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life, was begun in 1938 at Harvard University Health Services, and their aim was to try to use the talents of psychologists and physicians to understand where health came from rather than sickness.

There were really two classes of findings that came out of the study. The more concrete simple ones were what you should do by age fifty in order to be happy and healthy in old age. There are six things that really matter at fifty and predict whether at eighty you'll be dead or unhappy and sick or whether you'll be alive, happy and well. These six findings were: don't abuse alcohol, stop smoking cigarettes, work hard on your marriage, don't be a couch potato, keep your weight within reasonable limits, and perhaps the most important, and this is easier said than done, is to learn how to make lemonade out of lemons. And some of the ways people do this are with humor, with altruism, and with stoicism.

The second, broader, class of findings from the study are simple but have much more to do with living. Healthy aging is not having a small waist and using Botox and worrying if you can still run semi-marathons. Healthy aging is being interested in learning new things, learning how to play and, most importantly, Andlinburg wrote, "The seeds of love must be eternally re-sown." And to do this means letting the people that you care about come inside. It isn't just enough to find people who give you "social support." What's important is to take those people in. You've got use what life gives you.