Editorial September 27, 1999 Issue

Maximize your life potential

Mary Metzner Trammell

They're all around us. People past the conventional retirement age—sometimes decades past—yet anything but retired from life. Like the man I know who hikes several miles every morning and baby-sits for his grandchildren every afternoon. Or the great-grandmother who's on call 24 hours a day as a Christian healer—and volunteers in the community. Or former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has become an international mediator, written 13 books, and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro—all since he "retired."

We need to overhaul our whole view of gerontology.

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