Ashton Applewhite
Activist
Reprinted with permission from www.thischairrocks.com
Sunday June 25, 2017
You hear people say, “I wish I were young again,” all the time. Yet I’ve never met anyone who would actually choose to move their game piece back on the board unless they could transport their present-day consciousness along with it. No one actually wants to be younger, despite a lifetime of being bombarded by messages that old = awful and it’s all going to suck. Even the most frightened and unenlightened know otherwise: that despite the inevitable loss of cartilage and comrades, aging is different — and way better — than the way it’s portrayed in the culture. That is powerful fodder for a movement to end ageism.
Imagine less fear: have the things you dreaded come to pass?
Imagine more awareness: understanding that appeals to look or act “younger” are bigotry.
Imagine learning these things earlier in life, so the generations that follow are liberated from needless dread.
Imagine coming together at all ages to make it happen.
