Actually, Getting Old Is Not Fun

 

—by Catherine Bailey

Despite rosy prognostications by the media about a “new old age” for the baby boomer generation, the stark reality is that for most of us, what comes at the end of a ripe old age will taste more bitter than sweet. Susan Jacoby, author of Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age, opened her frank discussion on aging by taking the measure of her audience at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles.

How many people, she asked, would like to live …