Typically, books on aging are limited to a single topic. From elder abuse to dementia, from downsizing to managing retirement funds, experts will zero in on a particular aspect of aging and explain how best to approach it. When authors consider aging in a general sense, their work can lack the detail of a more focused book – and even resort to being gentle self-help guides about the life-affirming joys of aging. Where, then, is the middle ground? Why can’t we have a meticulously detailed, overall guide to aging that is readable, engrossing and inspiring?
In The Gift of Aging: Growing Older with Purpose, Planning, and Positivity, Marcy Cottrell Houle and Elizabeth Eckstrom deliver this perfect middle ground. Cottrell Houle, a wildlife biologist and award-winning nature writer, writes in a way that ‘affirms the highest values of the human spirit’. Her experiences with her parents’ aging, and with her own, allow her to explain the ‘incredible journey’ and ‘sparkling gifts’ that characterise our later stages of life.
However, Eckstrom’s scientific credentials give weight to Cottrell Houle’s teachings. As Chief of Geriatrics at Oregon Health & Science University, Eckstrom’s medical practice and academic output as a geriatrician bring detailed ‘research-based strategies’ to the book’s fundamental argument: that aging needs to be approached with positivity and pragmatism. If aging is inevitable, why not live with joy and purpose?
Where Cottrell Houle sees aging as a ‘map’ that we need to make, with a compass to follow as we navigate the journey, her guiding points are ultimately centred around care. The book begins with how we need to care for our minds, before considering how we might care for our bodies, our families and our souls. Within each of these parts, though, we find Eckstrom’s concrete scientific expertise: she provides strategies to enhance wellbeing – joining support groups, reducing safety hazards at home, preparing retirement savings – that she shares with her own patients.
Since healthy brain aging is so essential for reducing the risk of cognitive decline, Eckstrom explains how exercise, Mediterranean diets, sleep and social integration can significantly improve our wellbeing as we age. She details how age limits the heart’s pumping ability, worsens our pain responses and weakens our immune system, with statistics and tables to back up her claims.
Crucially, Cottrell Houle scatters personal stories and inspiring lessons amidst these medical instructions. She converses with a 98-year-old calligrapher, a 106-year-old who finds purpose in volunteering, and a couple in their 80s who are joyfully enjoying a second chance at love, and her beautifully human stories give the book a warmth that more ‘medical’ books so often lack.
If the book were written by Cottrell Houle alone, it could arguably be considered too ‘fluffy’ a guide to aging; if Eckstrom were the sole author, the book would be so medically detailed that it would be less approachable. Together, Cottrell Houle and Eckstrom find a wonderful balance. Explaining how our twilight years can best be enjoyed with joy and purpose, The Gift of Aging blends scientific detail with inspirational lessons, and is a must-read guide to aging.
)