Laura Carstensen, Director of the Stanford University Center on Longevity, and promoter of the term “perennials” to name older people, emphasizes that although people want to live longer, and science is helping that happen, the real challenge and opportunity is through cultural and societal changes in attitudes towards older people.

Those of us who are 60+ are deeply influenced by our culture and our life experiences. We went to school, worked, developed relationships and perhaps raised a family, then retired. Many of us have 10, 15, 20, 30 and more years to live. How shall we spend these years? What will motivate and reward us?

Older adults are now a growing new resource – older people who have expertise, resources, imagination, energy and the motivation to try to make a difference in our world. We must change the societal expectations from fearing a crisis caused by an over-abundance of burdensome older adults to one about quality long life and new opportunities for older people and their communities.

“Perennials” – Older adults choose when they can engage and contribute. Various factors affect older adults’ choices – family and friends, time, types of opportunities, finances, health. Sometimes an older adult needs to take a break. Perennials aren’t guaranteed to blossom year after year, but given proper conditions, good soil and nutrients, they can go on for decades. Even as physical and cognitive health may decline, a perennial understands the sentence one of my old friends used when asked to do something difficult, “Of course. I am not dead yet!”

The prairie wild crocus is a good symbol for perennials. Crocuses are resilient. They are able to adjust to change and misfortune. Crocuses reappear on the prairie hillside even if in the previous year they were beaten down by ice and snow and freezing temperatures. Crocus-minded perennials keep their belief in something larger than themselves – a belief that spring comes again and again; and in the coming spring, something in our world might have changed for the better. Even more importantly, perennials may have helped bring that change about.