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T u e s d a y, M a y 2 8 , 2 0 1 9
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Quality of life for seniors Seniors must become agents of change: Sharon Butala
by Hilary Klas sen
Of the various “isms” that currently dominate our national conversations, ageism has yet to raise its profile to the level of sexism and racism. Award-winning Saskatchewan author, Sharon Butala, thinks that reality may be changing. Her recent article, “Against Ageism” for The Walrus triggered at least a half-dozen follow-up radio interviews, allowing her to raise consciousness on the subject. Butala admits to being in total shock when old age hit. Getting old was something that happened to other people! Outright denial was her go-to coping mechanism. The place of the elderly in an age that worships youthfulness is at best, ambiguous. Now in her late 70s, Butala has made ageism her cause. She identifies “staggering ageism everywhere we turn” and says it’s time “for all of us, the young and the old, to create a new framework with which to view older adults.” However, Butala hasn’t found much material to inform a new framework or to counter ageism in North America or the British Isles, so she’s posed a few ideas of her own to help each of us become agents of change. One is to blend the demographic spectrum by having elderly people become more a part of the lives of children. “Once the nuclear family came into existence, the elderly were shuttled off somewhere else and weren’t a part of the everyday life of the children,” says Butala. Elderly
people who are friendly, helpful and affectionate and could be looked up to, ought to be in schools as volunteers. “From the time they’re tiny, children would become very familiar with the elderly as human beings, not just as these distasteful spectres they see hobbling down the street who are kind of frightening to them.” Another change is to ensure the elderly are well represented in the board rooms of the nation where decisions are made, says Butala. Every governing body or any agency, whether municipal or provincial or federal government or NGOs should have elderly people on the board with equal status to everyone else on the board. Misplaced ageist humour also needs to be addressed. When somebody makes a joke about old people on television, on the radio or in print, that person should be called out, Butala says. “I’m not talking about ranting and raving and name calling, but simply saying, when you told this joke you denigrated all old people. It’s not as funny as you think because it’s very hurtful.” She likens this to the old consciousness-raising days of the second wave of feminism. “People were calling mostly men all the time on their sexist attitudes and behaviours.” Women became intentional about gathering in small groups and raising each other’s consciousness about the sexism they lived with, mostly in their own homes and marriages.
There isn’t the same nitpicking toward ageist attitudes as there is toward sexist or racist attitudes. “Heavens, the very person who will call you for being sexist won’t even notice that he / she is being ageist! - S h a ro n B u ta l a
“ They called out the attitudes that nobody noticed, that everybody took for granted. The same thing is true about ageism. We have to take on that responsibility as individuals to raise everybody’s consciousness. We have to get braver and point out to the media these things.” For Butala, one of the worst offenders in recent memory was a young woman on CBC radio who said how “disgusting” it was that after her grandma died, the family found tissues tucked into many articles of
Award-winning Saskatchewan author Sharon Butala is raising consciousness on the subject of ageism. Su pplied
her clothing. “I wanted to leap into the radio and do something ill-mannered, possibly even illegal to her,” says Butala. If Butala finds growing old terrifying, she also finds it wonderful. “For me it’s been a most gratifying and satisfying experience.” Old age has given her greater freedom to express herself and less concern about offending others. She stays active by walking anywhere from two to six kilometres almost every day. Mindfulness seems a natural development in old age. “It’s way better to live in the moment because of course, your future isn’t going to be so great. You won’t be building a new house. You don’t lie around dreaming of the great things that are going to happen. You enjoy the moment so much more than you ever could before.” Being in the moment was helpful when Butala’s new short story collection arrived. “I woke up one morning and the first short story and the ideas were just there in my head.” The others followed similarly in an almost un-
Sharon Butala’s new collection of short stories, Season of Fury and Wonders, has just been released. Supplied
broken flow. “Season of Fury and Wonder” launched in early May in Calgary where she now resides. Each story is inspired by a literary giant Butala encountered as an undergrad –writers like Poe, Chekhov, Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Willa Cathers, James Joyce and others. The book is about the condition of being old and every protagonist is an old woman. Butala
says she couldn’t have written it until now, another perk of her advanced years. It’s her fourth collection and twentieth book. Butala says its time to stop treating senior citizens as a burden. “I really think its important that we bring the elderly back into society.” Is it too much to imagine that society might one day ‘worship’ its elders?
encore Career project helps older adults work beyond traditional retirement He adds, “Older adults want to go to work, and they want to do a good job. They want to be engaged in meaningful activities and have satisfaction in their work.” One local success story in the area of Encore Careers is the Corps of Commissioners which hires retired RCMP and military people in the 50-plus age range for what are known as bridging careers. Many
by Darlene P olacHic
Recognizing the changing size, nature and economic circumstances of older adults, the Saskatoon Council On Aging (SCOA) recently launched the Encore Careers Project. Project leader Dr. Murray Scharf sees the burgeoning reality as “a huge new window in changing circumstances.” Encore Careers examined the issue of older adults being engaged in the workforce, working beyond traditional retirement, and engagement in entrepreneurial pursuits. In the 1920s, Scharf says, few people were expected to live to retirement age. If they did, men typically lived three years beyond it; women, eight years. Those born in the 1950s were expected to live beyond retirement into their 80s. Today, half the population will most likely live to age 100, something that will seriously challenge existing pension plans which were set up when life expectancy was around age 70. “People today could easily live 30 years beyond retirement,” Scharf says. “We’re realizing we have to work longer, to age 75 and beyond.” Scharf says the necessity to work longer arises from a variety of circumstances. “Most people want to be selfsufficient, which means they need to have enough personal income to carry them. Pension plans didn’t expect the cost of living to go as high as it has.” Grey divorce is becoming increasingly common. More couples in their 50s and 60s are divorcing than in any other age bracket. This results in divided estates and selling the shared home so one or both will now have a mortgage or rent payment.
The Saskatoon Council on Aging launched the Encore Careers project to examine the increase of older adults who are choosing to work past the age of traditional retirement, whether out of financial necessity or personal satisfaction. Dr. Murray Scharf says employment opportunities for seniors are wide and varied. p oS t med ia fi l e ph o t o
“It used to be that people had supports from immediate family, extended family, various communities including their faith community, and the government,” Scharf says. “Now it’s narrowed down to the individual and government.” Canada no longer has enforced retirement at 65, and many now work to age 75 and beyond. This impacts the overall economy because young people have to enter the work force with lesser employment, even though they have pressing student loans to pay off. This particular financial burden often falls to parents, more of whom are finding themselves having to support their adult children. The Encore Career Project was undertaken as an interorganizational partnership of SCOA with Radius, the Corps of Commissionaires, the Saskatoon Chapter of Retired Teachers Association and the YWCA. The immediate findings reveal there is no one path to encore careers, but many agencies that are deal-
ing with the issue. What the project did was produce a comprehensive Directory of Services for older adults in search of encore careers. “This is not a job placement program,” Scharf says. “It is a resource to help older adults who want to be engaged with dignity and independence. When people are unemployed, it often takes them some time to admit they need help. Many older people will give up food rather than admit they’re out of money.” Scharf says pride and the desire for independence can prevent older adults from availing themselves of resources. “For example, SCOA got the City of Saskatoon to initiate a tax deferral strategy for seniors. Victoria has the same program, and hundreds there use it. Only six people in Saskatoon took advantage of tax deferral. That encourages me. It shows that people have pride and independence, and will be more likely to seek opportunities for encore careers.”
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other organizations and businesses are also beginning to make space in their work force for older adults, partly because they realize there are no replacements out there for these experienced workers. Scharf says more and more older adults are working from home in what is known as the gig economy (as in taking on gigs, or contract work). Others are turn-
ing hobbies into businesses. He says the opportunities are wide and varied. “This is not yesterday being carried on. This is a new tomorrow, and more and more seniors are greeting it. They look back and see that their life consisted of chasing change. Now they’re being presented with a wonderful opportunity to continue that. I’m excited about the possibilities.”
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