Choked up a bit when I saw this on the news this morning- a 72 year old engineer from Tokyo is organizing a team of elderly professionals to work cleaning up the Fukushima nuclear plant. Since they are older, they don't fear the radiation. (Although 72 is not that old, and Japanese people are the longest-lived race on the planet. . .) Different professionals from a variety of fields are volunteering, although as one news caster pointed out, no politicians of bureaucrats have joined the force so far. What a surprise!!
I don't remember the exact words, but the engineer said something interesting. He said something about "being our age, we have possibilities/things to offer that younger people can't supply/understand. Aging should be about opening up new possiblities." That's his quote, with a liberal helping of interpretation by me. I think that in the future we'll see a lot of new offerings from our aging population.
I love this. And I love the idea of a generation of seniors who are fit and strong and ready to leap to the rescue. There is one in my TRX class at the Y - I want to be like her when I grow up! Also, I agree it might not make the most sense that these younger seniors don't fear the radiation - they are quite noble.
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