Boomers Be Booming

WELCOME

Hello and welcome to the blog, Boomers Be Booming. It is for baby boomers, those people older, and those younger who have friends and relatives in that age range. Baby boomers are defined as those persons born between 1946 and 1964. The object is to discuss the trials and tribulations that older people face as they age.

The oldest baby boomers are now about 77 years old, and they have seen wars, economic turmoil, and rapid changes to our society (and countless other problems.) One of the big challenges that many boomers face is two-fold. Often, people younger than they are, treat boomers as if they no longer have any value to society, And, often too, many boomers come to feel that they don’t have any use themselves.

This double whammy can cause many to withdraw into themselves. Thus, making a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy—that they really are less useful and without anything to contribute to modern society. Since most boomers have many years left, it is a shame that this happens. The purpose of this blog is to discuss this situation and to look at possible solutions. I am suggesting that writing can give new purpose to their lives and can bring about an expanded feeling of self-fulfillment and satisfaction. This can bring more meaning to their lives, leading to a better and healthy life.

I invite everyone reading this to feel free to comment and add your thoughts. Of course, this is a public forum so everyone will be able to read your comments. I welcome any discussion. If anyone would like to speak to me directly in private, just hit the “CONTACT ME” button below which will take you to my email.

I will try to keep this blog interesting and related to baby boomers and to writing. I feel that we shouldn’t take life and ourselves too seriously. So, I will try to infuse a bit of humor now and then because many people think that laughter is the best medicine. We should always be able to laugh a little at ourselves. The shirt in my picture above is a testament to my type of humor. I hope you enjoy it.

On a serious note, I have included a bunch of tips on writing on the button below.

A JOKE OR SOMETHING ELSE?

A man died and went to meet the gatekeeper. “Sir, you can have anything you want, forever and ever—beautiful women, exotic foods, treasure, travel—whatever you desire.”

“Great! That sounds like what I’ve always wanted. I think I will start with beautiful women to keep me company.” And, lo and behold, there came a procession of the most beautiful women the man had ever seen. This went on for a thousand years, but the man became a little bored, so he went back to the gatekeeper.

“I think I would like to try out the food you mentioned. I am a little bored with the women thing.” And, lo and behold, every delicious food appeared in ample quantities, and he ate to his heart’s content. But again, after another thousand years, he became somewhat bored with the food.

So, he went back to the gatekeeper. “I’m a little bored with all the food. I think I would like to travel.” And, lo and behold, he began traveling to all the most delightful and exotic places that he ever imagined. But again, after another thousand years, he became bored with the travel. So, he went back to see the gatekeeper.

“Sir, I’m bored with all these worldly delights. Maybe, just for a few minutes, could I go to see what Hell is like—just for a very short time?”

“Sir,” the gatekeeper replied, “Just where do you think you are?”

This little story brings up a couple of thoughts about the human condition. Perhaps, an eternity of worldly delights, such as envisioned in the concept of the heavenly afterlife, might not be such a good thing. Also, having an infinite amount of time might be less than what we envision as good. Personally, I think, considering human nature, without a time limit, very little of value would ever be accomplished by anyone. Productivity demands that there be a time limit or else people would become unmotivated and never get anything productive done.

This means that we must actively pursue those things we desire because, let’s face it, we do have a time limit on our lives. We should not let this time expire without seeking self-fulfillment in our lives. Our goal should be to find this self-fulfillment and value in our lives. In a nutshell, that is what this blog is all about, keeping our lives fulfilled as we age.

I invite your thoughts and comments and will respond as best as I can. If you choose to comment on a post or reply to a comment, you will need to supply your name(or any you choose) and your email. Your name will be seen by other readers, but your email will be hidden.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO WRITE?

Writing can help solve some of the problems that Baby Boomers may encounter as they age. One might be a crisis of confidence when they receive a lessening of credibility from those people around them who are younger. This may cause some to feel they are no longer of any use to society. Writing can help alleviate this situation.

There is an old saying that you shouldn’t believe everything you read. This is certainly true—but most people do believe much of what they read. In other words, they tend to give a certain level of credibility to the written word. So, when you write, you gain some importance, simply because you wrote it. That is not to say that you can get by with writing poorly or presenting gibberish. But, if you write well and produce good and interesting stories, articles, or anything else, you will benefit.

In addition, the very effort of thinking out what you want to write will help keep your mind sharp—much like doing crossword puzzles seems to help. The more you write, the better you will get, and it is an upward spiral from there.

WHO CAN WRITE?

Writing is one activity that almost everyone can do, even as they age. Writing your thoughts can bring a lot of satisfaction and self-fulfillment in our lives. And, there are hardly any limits on what you can write, why you might write, and who you can write to. Most people have probably said, at one time or another, after reading something, “I could write that.” Or, “I’ve always wanted to write a book.” Many Boomers have friends who have said, “You are so interesting, or you know so much about that—you should write a book.”

Books are not the only things you could write. We are bombarded with writing everywhere in our daily lives—newspapers, magazines, blogs, sales letters, the internet, billboards, soup cans, emails, letters, and hundreds of other places. And, somebody wrote everything you see. It could certainly be you—so don’t be afraid, put yourself out there.

BUT WHAT COULD YOU POSSIBLY WRITE?

Here is a list of some things that you could write. It is, by no means, all the possibilities. The world is your oyster—there are so many places for a writer to land—that it would take a large book to list them all.

Stories, novels, memoirs, poems, non-fiction books, daily journals/diaries
Copywriting materials, emails, grant offerings, resumes, web pages (yours or others), writing for political candidates
Magazine articles, plays/scripts, essays, letters to the editor, trade journal content
Charitable publications, requests for donations, club newsletters, HOA news, HOA meeting minutes, church news
Blog posts (your own), guest blog posts, blog comments/replies, snail-mail letters, jokes, anecdotes
And anywhere else you see writing—it’s all over the place.

(concern)-BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW TO WRITE

There are hundreds and hundreds of books about how to write just about anything. One of my favorites is EVERYBODY WRITES by Ann Handley. Her contention is that almost everyone writes something nearly every day. It might be an email, a letter, a note, a blog comment, or practically anything. Even though her book is mostly geared toward writing content for businesses, she gives great insight into what writing is all about. To her, writing is a habit not an art, something that anyone can learn with a little practice. She is very funny and takes a down-to-earth look at how to write virtually anything. Reading her book is like being in a comedy club listening to her do stand-up. Enough about Ann.

A stand-up comic gets a gig to perform at an old age home. Soon into his act, he notices that most of the old people there are pretty out of it, so he tries to tell the same joke twice and people still laugh because they have already forgotten that they just now heard it.
So, he gets a kick out of it and keeps telling the same joke for half an hour and towards the end of it, he notices that one old man is staring at him. He finishes his half hour and is about to leave, and that old man approaches him.
The comic is a bit nervous that the old guy is going to confront him about what he just did. He braces himself for some uncomfortable confrontation, but the old guy asks him, “How do you remember all those jokes?!”

Sorry about that, but this joke brings up one great point about the written word. Unlike the spoken word, which might be heard differently than you meant or uttered incorrectly, what you write can be changed. It’s called editing and you can polish up anything you write before it goes public. Mistakes can be fixed. If you watch the news, you often hear politicians trying to take back something they spoke out loud in public. They “walk back” the things they have said all the time— “That was taken out of context!” and other similar excuses. Yada, yada, yada.

As you do more and more writing, the fear of making a mistake or writing something wrong recedes into the back of your mind. You become more confident which means you are becoming a real writer. You can edit out any mistakes and present to your reader a polished piece that you can be proud of. This will bring a feeling of satisfaction, I promise.

NOTE—in writing this short little post, I think I spellchecked, moved things around, undid, and redid things about a dozen times.

WHAT IS HOLDING YOU BACK?

There is that self-doubt thing again. Often many Boomers feel like they have nothing to say, and if they did, who would listen? Don’t fall into this trap—it is a myth!

There are several billion people on Earth today and each has a unique history—economic, educational, family, cultural, job, career, thought, etc., etc., etc. That makes each one a unique person, unlike any other person now and unlike anyone who has ever lived. We all have a different story for the telling. And our uniqueness can be shown in many ways and in many places.

There are millions of websites and blogs on the internet, each of which is written by someone, a unique someone, having something to say to the rest of us. Millions of new books are published every year. Multitudes of short stories are written. Untold numbers of essays, articles, letters to the editor, memoirs, emails, sales pitches, newspaper items, letters, scripts, plays, etc., etc., etc., are written every year by some unique author.

“The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair.”-Mary Hector Vorse.

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”-Mark Twain.

These comments make it sound easy. Writing can be fun, or it can be torture. After all, you are putting your thoughts out into the world for all to see, if you make it public. It will almost always require thinking, dedication, hard work, and often a big dose of courage. But when you finish your story, article, etc., I’m pretty sure you will have a feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction, and self-fulfillment that you’ve seldom felt before.

Don’t let that worthless self-doubt hold you back. Sit your butt in that chair and cross out some wrong words.