Bill Thomas, Erickson School, in AARP Journal

“Persistently and deliberately misinterpreted as mere decline, elderhood is actually the rich reward that goes to those who manage to outgrow the frenzied jangle of adulthood and enter voluntarily into a new and much more soulful way of being.” This is the crux of William H. Thomas’ argument in the recent AARP Journal essay, “Eldertopia.” A geriatrician and faculty member at UMBC’s Erickson School, Thomas encourages older readers to reinterpret the physical changes that come with aging as “important signifiers or our unique journey through life” rather than as flaws. Recognizing the deeply personal nature of this challenge, he suggests that older adults “stop pining for what is already gone” and “start searching for the person [they] are meant to become.”