by Richard Adelman

With President Biden's recent disastrous debate performance the topic of his age is all over the news. Over the last year I have grown increasingly annoyed at the discourse about Biden's "age." There are consequences of using the word "age" to camouflage symptoms of cognitive decline or Parkinson's Disease.

Aging itself cannot cause or explain Joe Biden's cognitive impairment and movement difficulties. Most people his age and older, including myself and many readers of this article, are fortunate enough not to share his symptoms.

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We do not have his difficulty in finding and pronouncing words, projecting our voice, remembering what we and others have just said, or following a consistent train of thought. We do not display masklike facial expressions, stare off into the distance with our mouths hanging open, become disoriented and freeze in place rather than walking normally.

Being old does not inevitably bring about these behaviors. And, on the other hand, these symptoms can emerge, at a much younger age, usually due to Alzheimer's or Parkinson's Disease.

Many commentators in the mass media have asked themselves and their listeners and readers if Joe Biden is too old to be president. Almost all opinion polls only ask about his age and not about his health or mental acuity.

This way of framing the issue is misleading, disingenuous. A friend today calmly and wisely suggested that they are just using age as a euphemism for cognitive decline. Less calm myself, I ask "Why can't they call a spade a spade?"

The issue is not age nor the inevitable product of age. Thank God, not everyone his age ends up like Joe.

I have sympathy for Biden, a fellow, suffering human. (I even have a modicum of sympathy toward his family and their fellow enablers.) But framing the issue of Biden's decline as simply an issue of aging gives a bad name to old people. It is dishonest, confusing, cowardly, and disrespectful toward us.

As a Feldenkrais and Pilates teacher with a background in somatic psychology I have been personally and professionally involved in the issue of how to age well for two decades. Fifteen years ago Atencíon published my articles "Aging Gracefully" and "Growing Younger." They will be reappearing soon here in Lokkal.

I believe a key to aging gracefully is consciously forming an empathetic attitude toward your bodily self. This is not a given, but can be cultivated. An aging person needs to learn to listen to their body-- to patiently learn how to use their body in new ways. This enables them to accommodate to changes in vitality, strength, balance, flexibility, attention span, and response time as they accumulate years.

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Richard Adelman has an M.A. in Psychology and over 50 years experience in Somatic Formative Psychology and the Feldenkrais Method. He is also certified in Pilates, for which he has developed a gentle equipment-based approach especially suitable for seniors. He offers private session in Feldenkrais hands-on and movement work and Pilates instruction at his centrally-located consultorio, at your home, and at the TOSMA Saturday Market. He gives Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement classes at Salón Semilla, Mercado Sano, Mondays and Wednesdays 12-1:30. (More information about this class may be found in Lokkal's calendar.)

Richard is interested in helping you relieve pain and stress, improve your flexibility, posture, and coordination while you deepen your subjective bodily experience, learning to use yourself better in daily life.

richardadelman@gmail.com
Whatsapp: 415 197 7895
Bilingual

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