Positive Aging Through Reading Our Lives

The same turn toward “narrative” that has been making its way across psychology, sociology, and related disciplines is influencing
how gerontologists view the inner experience of aging—inside aging, as it were: subjective aging or biographical aging. In
sympathy with Kenneth and Mary Gergen’s vision of “positive aging”, and in contrast to the biomedical paradigm that dominates
societal perceptions of aging in general, a narrative gerontology appreciates that lives are in many ways “texts” that are
socially constructed – and co-authored—amid our relationships with others within a wide range of narrative environments, larger
stories, and master narratives—families, friendships, cultures, creeds, etc.. In this way, it opens up a theoretical space
for appreciating the poetic complexity of later life and for seeing aging as a process, potentially, of growing old and not just getting old. This paper explores how a poetic or narrative perspective sheds light on the intimate links
between memory, meaning, wisdom, and spirituality; moreover, how learning to “read our lives” can aid us in developing resilient,
robust stories—of self, other, and world—with which to meet the many challenges of later life.