Abstract
Author Ellyn Lem learned to appreciate adaptation and the full lives of older adults through her experiences researching and writing Gray Matters: Finding Meaning in the Stories of Later Life. According to Lem (2020), Gray Matters addresses the need for more insightful literature about aging (p. 236). Content sources include recent literature, television, plays, films, and art, in addition to stories from Lem’s field interviews and survey of over 200 people over 65 years bringing direct experiences to light through narratives. Lem emphasizes the importance of attention to diversity in later adulthood throughout Gray Matters and is transparent in indicating that her research sample was “mostly White.” Lem relates her emphasis on listening to stories to Atul Gawande’s affirmation (2014) of the power of stories and his identification of the widespread desire for a meaningful old age. Chapters in Gray Matters address intergenerational relationships, housing options, memory loss and its variability, intimacy; money, work, and retirement; death, and women and men: separate but equal?
According to Lem (2020, p. 13), advantages of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of aging include avoidance of the false dichotomy of aging as mostly negative or positive as well as “countering myths about age that often lead people to fear aging or disengage from the subject of aging.” She explains that interdisciplinary knowledge explores variations in experiences of older adults and provides balance in age studies that is a field that has generally been dominated by medical orientations. Lem notes the importance of demographic changes and the fact that the number of people entering gerontological fields is inadequate. She is concerned that myths about age can deter interest in entering these gerontological fields. Social workers know that an inadequate number of social workers enter gerontological social work fields and receive adequate specialized gerontological education. Gray Matters increases readers’ knowledge about contemporary literature, media, and research focused on lived experiences of older adults. The content and insights can be introduced into gerontology courses and social work practice, human behavior, policy, and research courses, as well as informing direct practice with critical perspectives.
Lem’s diverse literary sources include Shakespeare’s King Lear and graphic memoirs such as Can’t We Just Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chast (2014). Lem (2020, p. 7) affirms Margaret Cruikshank’s belief that creative work addressing aging has begun to encourage deeper considerations of this subject, and Lem (2020) refers to William Shakespeare’s King Lear as a play of contemporary topicality about growing old that highlights questions regarding loyalty and perception (p. 28). This play continued to be riveting and illuminating into this century when Glenda Jackson acted the part of Lear on Broadway in New York (Folger Shakespeare Library, 2019). Lem (2020, p. 235) writes that “literature helps us to see aging as difficult experiences but, most often, one worth the effort.” Lem (2020, p. 4) asserts that stories can humanize older adults and cites Mary Pipher’s (2019) assertion that through stories of joy, kindness, and courage audiences can see possibilities in older adults rather than damaging stereotypes. Critiquing media support for stereotypes and internalization by older adults of negative images, Lem (2020, p. 10) adds that “research has demonstrated that older adults who watch television appear to have more negative attitudes about aging than older adults who do not watch television.”
Lem questions the concept of “successful aging” originally developed by Rowe and Kahn, noting Andre Scharlach’s (2017) criticism of the concept as applicable to relatively few (12%–15%) older adults, leaving out people with disabilities and members of racial and ethnic minority groups (Lem, 2020, p. 6). In contrast, Lem (2020, p. 6) supports an intersectional approach to aging that “looks at how certain groups of people may experience multiple categories of identity that contribute to inequalities (e.g., ethnicity, poverty, gender).” This approach acknowledges realities of unequal access to resources and effects of inequality throughout a person’s lifetime on one’s life as an older adult, a perspective consistent with social work’s focus on social justice that highlights social inequalities that influence aging experiences.
Lem (2020) writes that “There are no easy answers here, but we cannot be afraid to confront these realities in our own conversations and in movies and books that depict difficult but significant issues of later life” (p. 238). Writing that age ultimately is not only a number but is about survival, Lem (2020) identifies major problems with aging in the United States that require resolution, especially poverty (pp. 237, 238). She elucidates diversity of experiences in aging based on race and ethnicity and writes that addressing inequality, rather than only speaking about inequality, must be a priority. She provides research and interdisciplinary narrative documentation of inequality that can expand social workers’ knowledge for advocacy with and on behalf of older adults and their families. Lem (2020) identifies end-of-life decisions and options as an area requiring more attention, that for some older adults “the conundrum of these seniors who are ready to die but are unable to end their lives is a difficult one that gerontologists need to discuss and try to resolve with families and with people who have faced that dilemma themselves” (p. 238). The bio-psycho-social-spiritual holistic perspectives and knowledge of social workers based on professional education, ethics, and practice experiences equip them with knowledge and skills for addressing challenges and ethical dilemmas in work with older adults and their families as clinicians, policy practitioners, researchers, and members of their own communities.
