Composing a Further Life

the AARP. The concern I feel about our capacity to think deeply about the future of our nation and our planet grows as I live longer. As you think further into the future, you see more and more interconnections, and your concerns extend more widely as well, like a swath of light extending through a partly opened door into darkness.
    The choice of where we put our efforts is also connected to how much we are willing to learn as we get older, and whether we can once again grow into a new consciousness and new forms of commitment, acquiring new skills. I have never tried to build a political movement from the bottom up, though many of my friends have, so in writing a book about a process of change, I am practicing an old skill in a new context. But I was impressed by the significance of the experience other women brought to the effort, even as I noticed that what was effective twenty years before might no longer be effective, notably that demonstrations for peace and justice issues no longer get much coverage from the press.
    Mother’s Day and Father’s Day fall in the spring. There is also a Grandparents’ Day, in the fall, which doesn’t get nearly as much play, though I expect it, too, stimulates the greeting card market. On September 12, Grandparents’ Day, 2004, less than two months before the election, we launched Granny Voter on the Washington Ellipse. We had gathered our children and grandchildren from across the country and met in Pat O’Brien’s Washington apartment the evening before, creating banners with the multicolored handprints of the grandchildren. Then on a beautiful sunny day, we gathered in a semicircle of white rocking chairs. My assignment was to introduce the event.
    “Never in human history have there been so many experienced and healthy elders with so much energy and potential commitment,” I told the crowd. “As lives not only extend but extend with higher quality, we are becoming something new in history—a new and dynamic force, 70 million strong in America and growing. What can elders do with this unique combination of energy and knowledge? Too many politicians have been blinded by stereotypes that apply mainly to the sick or those in their last years. They seem to assume that seniors are concerned only with Social Security, Medicare, and prescription drug benefits. Political advertising literally instructs seniors to concentrate on these special interests.
    “Candidates in this year’s election would be wise instead to watch the grandparents as we take up an active role we may play for many years: The Grannies are coming! Most of us are just getting started: the average age of becoming a first-time grandmother in the United States today is forty-seven. And more and more Baby Boomers are joining in. We took a rocking chair as our symbol, but this rocker is jet propelled. We chose the term
Granny Voter
because
granny
suggests someone easy to dismiss and we aim to reverse that meaning. Our special interest is the future.
    “Older adults matter for human societies, passing on the stories that tell young people where they came from and offering visions of possible futures. They are leaders and healers and workers. They care for children when parents are unavailable and give their time to the community. Our ancestors planted trees and vines to bear fruit long after their deaths. We will find new ways to work for the future today.
    “The world shifts and surprises from day to day. The Twin Towers are gone, and so is the Berlin Wall. Those who have lived with history have the habits of learning and adaptation, but we don’t want to see the costs passed on to the next generation. We worry about the long-term cost of pollution or a destabilized climate that might last centuries. We mourn the disruption of institutions and international friendships based on decades of careful building. We can remind youth of the real burdens of war or injustice. We know that short-term thinking is dangerous.
    “We vote—over 70 percent of those between fifty-five and seventy-four voted in the 2000 presidential election—and as we recognize that we represent something new, we are beginning to speak out. Beginning today, we will work to change the political agenda from short-term to long-term thinking. We will take on a new role as advocates and trustees for the future. Realizing that we are freer than ever before to stand up for what we believe in, we can become the needed visionaries of our