Pfizer and FOGO -- Fear of Getting Old

Today’s New York Times has an article in the Advertising Section titled “Pfizer to Inject Youth into the Aging Process”. Pfizer is attempting to improve its image, the article says, and the three-year old campaign, “Fear of Getting Old”, or FOGO is an effort “to burnish the Pfizer image rather than promote its products.”

One aspect of the advertising campaign is a website geared to people in their 20s and 30s. There’s a quiz which allegedly evaluates the quiz-taker’s attitude toward his/her aging. Pfizer’s research reports that its image among persons who have visited the website has improved by 55 percentage points.

So the campaign is apparently achieving its goal. People have a more positive image of this Big Pharma entity.  And hopefully there is a parallel positive increase in the attitude toward aging: in general and one’s own aging among the visitors to getold.com.  My cursory review indicated that the topics are certainly of interest to people in their 20s and 30s. There also seems to be a general attitude of ‘grin and bear it’ toward one’s aging.  The gerontologist in me says we must go much farther.  We must honor and cherish each stage of our life, each stage with its own potential for growth and development. No Fear!

I’m reminded of an advertisement done by Kaiser Permanente. Its aim is to encourage women to get regular health screenings, but the 60 second clip shows older women with such life, energy,  mature beauty, deep relational capabilities and spirit that I can never look at it just once.  See for yourself!

The Geography of Memory Part 3 of 3

© Imelda Maurer, cdp July 14, 2014

I read an online obituary last week for a woman I felt I had known to at least a small degree after reading her daughter’s book, “The Geography of Memory.” If you have read the book, you too will read about a familiar person in this very personalized obituary. The obituary can be accessed here.

I must draw attention again to institutional and depersonalized words regarding the elderly, their health status or the services they receive that can creep into the noblest of works. Words are so important in the way we frame our images and concepts.  In the effort to change the culture of aging and aging services, a project that demands a total transformation of how we presently perceive aging, old age and frailty, we must find words that reflect the person with his/her dignity, wholeness and personhood.

Walter Brueggumann¹ says of the Hebrew Testament prophets: “Most of all, they understood the distinctive power of language, the capacity to speak in ways that evoke newness ‘fresh from the word.’

Thus, it would be much more in keeping with Erna’s dignity to describe her and others with her diagnosis as “persons living with dementia” rather than “demented adults” as is found in Walker’s book.  We are each more than our diagnosis.  Walker actually reflected that truth in how she talked about her mother, even in her last months of life. But it is all too easy to take on the words of the larger society when we know at some deep subconscious level that the words are inadequate.

“Diaper” is a term that defines protective clothing used with babies. It is not a term that, when used in describing adult protective clothing that reflects dignity. “Incontinent briefs” or “incontinent pads” are much more appropriate terms.  Mrs. Walker herself exclaims to her daughter when confronted with Depends, “Diapers are for babies!”

Editors need to get the word (no pun intended) that just as certain words are now seen as racist, for example, there are also words that are depersonalizing to elders, especially frail elders.

Karen Schoeneman, formerly of CMS has a great chart of ‘old words’ and ‘new words’. You can access it here. Print it out and practice using new words! When we change our words, we can change a culture!  And we are acting in the tradition of the prophets – persons who pointed to an alternative world, the world of the Kingdom of God.

1. Walter Brueggemann (2001). The Prophetic Imagination (2nd^.  ed.)Minneapolis. Augsburg Fortress. p xxiii.

The Geography of Memory Part 2 of 3

The Geography of Memory Part 2 of 3

 
© Imelda Maurer, cdp July 11,l 2014
In yesterday’s blog, I ended with this from Jeanne Murray Walker’s book:  “And for a while we have each other.”

As a member of a Congregation of Catholic Sisters (a Religious Institute),  I have often thought – and sometimes said – that upon our return from a burial in our convent cemetery, we should all, at least figuratively, hold each other a little closer in the circle. That same feeling was expressed by Jeanne Murray Walker when she and her sister pledged to create times for family gatherings after her mother’s death.  So my musings here apply not only to members of Religious Institutes but to all family circles however each of those circles define family or community.

 In consciously drawing closer within the circle, what might we find within?

----- The importance of the present moment?
-----  An articulation of the love for one another in word or action that often goes unsaid?
-----  A deepened cherishing, knowing that it is only “for a while” that we have each other?
-----  A greater appreciation of ‘the other’ gained from more attentive presence and listening?

There may be some questions that we each bring to the circle.
-----  How do we want to spend the rest of our lives together?
-----  What will I bring to the circle to enrich it?
-----  How will I contribute to the legacy of this circle?

What would you add to the learnings or questions within the circle?  Please share by adding a comment below.

The Geography of Memory Part 1 of 3

The Geography of Memory:

a review

Walker, Jeanne Murray (2013)
The Geography of Memory
New York: Center Street

© Imelda Maurer, cdp  July 10, 2014

Jeanne is a writer, a professor, a lover of poetry and literature and also a wife, mother, daughter, and sister. All of these roles/competencies find their way into her writing. Using the concept of metaphor as a recurring theme, Jeanne pulls together memories of her childhood and the enduring bonds between her and her mother.

For those looking for more about caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s, or the experience of being with a parent with dementia, that comes mostly in the last 100 (of 360) pages. Jeanne and her sister, Julie, are devoted and caring daughters; their love and faithfulness to their mother is reflected in the many ways they were present to support and assist their mother.

There were several times as I neared the end of this book that I identified closely with Jeanne’s reflections about her mother’s aging, her increasing frailty and finally her living with dementia. Those were emotions I too felt seeing my mother in her later years. I remember feeling rage that my mother would suffer the ravages of illness and memory loss and what I considered unnecessary losses to her personhood. (Now I know she didn’t lose her personhood! Jeanne expresses her own realization of that truth very well.)

The temptation to include some of my choice quotations from the book is strong. I resist so that each reader might savor firsthand those ‘favorite places’ for herself/himself. However, I am compelled to include this one quote. Walker speaks of a family gathering about a year and a half after her mother’s death.

“We will keep gathering. This is what we have now: the wind, the waning sunlight, the stars and flowers, our mother, the journey we took together during her last decade, the disciplines we learned, the gifts our long pilgrimage together brought us. And here on earth, for a while, we have each other.” (Page 360)

And for a while we have each other.