There are a bunch of new documentaries out (or coming out) about aging and creativity. There’s Do Not Go Gently by Melissa Godoy. There’s Still Kicking by Greg Young. Both these films profile life-long artists and people new to creative expression. Artists never really did fit into the 9-5 crowd, so it makes sense that they are able to dodge the dilemma of retirement: how to stay meaningfully engaged in life when the working world kicks you to the curb? What can we do when the identity we invested so many years in building springs a serious leak? These artists are clearly role models. And those who never quite had the courage (or luxury) to pursue the arts during their careers, have a special brand of courage to conquer self- and cultural doubts and become an artist.
There’s also Young@Heart by Stephen Walker. Young@Heart tells the story of the choral group with covers of kid music. These folks cover the Clash, OutKast, and Cold Play – and do it with an in your face quality one has come to expect only of 20-somethings. Many of these guys weren’t singers or artists – and now they’ve found a incredible outlet for their energy and a powerful way to build community.
With three of these coming out in 2007/08 (Fox Searchlight acquired Young@Heart from Channel 4 and will bring it out in 08) there seems to be a light bulb going off somewhere…perhaps many places at once. Creativity and creative expression are ways to fan and direct the life force – for healthy older adults and for those with some serious disabilities.
These films are clearly inspirational. Yet I’m a little hesitant about their language and framing of the issues. It sounds rather like I have to claw my way out of this world. I was sort of hoping that I might gain enough perspective that I could go out fairly tranquilly. The “Young@Heart” thing seems a little cute – why can’t I be old at heart? And must I kick?
One of the lessons I’ve learned in growing older: you develop rich understanding of the stages you’ve been through, but you don’t have a clue about the stages ahead of you.
When Dylan Thomas wrote the villanelle “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he was mourning his father’s physical decline. He was frightened (as a drinking man, he’d probably prefer “angry”) to see his father’s transformation from something he understood, a wild man, into something he didn’t, a gentler person who’d put aside most of his thirsting desires.
The “cute” images of older old people always have the feel of something staged by younger marketing professionals who know one thing: youth good, age bad.
The women in “Still Kicking” were not all life-long artists. Painter Frances Catlett started painting in her 50s, rug weaver Grace Gildersleeve started making rugs in her 70s, and Madeline Mason made her first doll at 80 years old. Art and music are just one example for having a purpose to get up every morning, there are many others. In the film, 106 year old Lily Hearst believes she lived so long because she was very active when she was young–she rope climbed mountains in Austria. Art and music pursuits in later years may just be a byproduct of folks who tend to live life with passion and “can do” attitudes regardless of what they do.
The photo of painter Frances Catlett holding up two fingers was taken after her second consecutive strike while bowling.