Dancing with the Muse in Old Age

Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, by Priscilla Long

Dancing with the Muse in Old Age is a book about thriving in old age. While focusing on creative engagement, it is for everyone who is aging. It reflects the new ways of looking at old age as a potentially dynamic, happy, and productive time. It reviews the science on aging that shows that negative views of aging can actually cause decline. The book opposes ageism and reports the evidence that old age can be a time of great happiness. It challenges the widespread notion that “peak ages of creativity” are 39 to 42. It challenges the notion that the burgeoning number of elders will drag down the economy (in fact, we are holding up the economy). A chapter titled “Brilliant Old Brains” provides lifestyle guidelines that do not guarantee but do influence your chances of growing into a deeply satisfying old age. The book explores the old-age time of life of more than one-hundred dynamic elders—mostly but not entirely creators in the arts, both well-known and little known, both able-bodied and disabled. Their inspiring stories model for us all how to live in old age. The sections, “Composing Our Lives: Old Age” at the end of each chapter will help readers consider and better plan for a satisfying old age.

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