The Aesthetics of Natural Elderhood

Abstract

Elders have played a critical role in human evolution as keepers of stories and contributors to beauty in culture. In a fashion reflective of Gene Cohen's broadly integrative thinking about aging, we assert the importance of elders to the future of our species during this time of great social unrest and environmental challenges. A deeper ethics of aging is required which challenges simple scientific notions of aging as disease and decline and broadens the human dimension of wise elderhood.