Whose Script are We Flipping?

May is Older Americans Month.

It’s the time of the year when all the forty-somethings get together and come up with new themes for aging. This year the theme is Flip the Script on Aging.

To quote the U.S. government, “The 2025 theme, Flip the Script on Aging, focuses on transforming how society perceives, talks about, and approaches aging. It encourages individuals and community to challenge stereotypes and dispel misconceptions.”

Sadly, the part of the government that wrote this, the Administration for Community Living where all the Older Americans Act programs were housed, was just blown up by the Trump Administration. I guess that’s the ultimate flipping the script. Burn the script. Make a paper airplane out of it. Or a kite. My brother could make a mean kite out of newspaper and balsa wood (which seemed to always be lying around the house, why I don’t know). You just needed to add enough tail to make it fly right.

I’m skeptical about mid-career professionals or worse, PR firms, coming up with nifty-isms for this year’s old lady t-shirts. By claiming to go after stereotypes, they reinforce them. We have to counter the perception that older adults are weak, disengaged, lonely, socially isolated, needy, so the slogan creators think. And by thinking that, they pretty much reinforce the script. In other words, they think the script needs flipping because that’s the script they’re currently using for the movie.

Do you follow? Or am I just excessively beliggerent?

My script and the scripts of millions of old ladies like me would be a great shock to a lot of younger people. My script is about freedom and autonomy and power. And I have no intention to flip it or buy into professionals’ cozy characterization of old people as hopeless wallflowers waiting to be asked to dance.

When I was in junior high (now known as middle school), I was great at a dance I learned from American Bandstand called the Bristol Stomp. Doing the Bristol Stomp was the most fun I had back then. When the song came on at a school dance, I’d race to the dance floor, never mind if there was somebody to dance with. I couldn’t stand the idea of waiting to be asked. Doing the Bristol Stomp was sublime.

Like being old right now. I don’t need no script flipping.

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