 This is St. Tech, Hawaii. The immunity matters here. Navigating the journey. Navigating the journey is about looking at our wishes, our desires, on how we want to take these last steps in life. So as you know, we have looked and looked and looked and talked and talked and talked for two years now to all sorts of people and all that are on this journey so that we understand and we hear different people, different opinions, different ways of navigating this journey. And today, today we have a very special guest, two of them. And they are talking about active aging. I love that phrase, active aging. Active aging is the alternative to sick care and anti-aging. So Merrill O'Neill is the director, program director, at Waikiki Community Center. And Dr. Warren Wong. I should know that. That's my son-in-law's name. And he's a geriatrician. And they are going to tell us all about active aging and what does that mean? How do we go about active aging? Dr, tell us first about you. OK, so I was a doctor at Kaiser doing geriatric care for well over 20 years, close to 30 years. And then I retired from Kaiser and found myself kind of scratching my head thinking about what I was going to do next. And I ended up working at another very wonderful health care systems job for a while. I'm still helping out there. But I've made it less and less of my time. I mean, during my active career, of course, I was full time. Now I'm kind of more like a substitute geriatrician. How do you be a substitute? A geriatrician. You don't get to substitute yet. But I think the really interesting part of it has been going from taking care of older people to realize that I'm an older person myself. It's been a completely different experience. Yes, that is a different experience. It really is. So what do you do with, quote, older, aging, active aging? How do you? Well, I mean, do you have patients that come to you? Do you have workshops? What do you do? Yeah, so first of all, I myself don't like the term active aging that well. I think that a lot of people say, oh, that's not for me. And it's actually hard to find the correct way of describing something. But there is a big amount of time that's between retiring and at the point when you're actually quite old, when you're getting frail. It's probably about, for most people, about 20 years of, well, what's in there? What's that amount of time all about between when you were hard at work and the time when most people think of, quote, aging when everybody says, I'm getting older. But they don't think of themselves as old yet, because old has a bad stigma that you can't walk, and you can't do this, can't do that. I think, Marcia, you're a good example of active aging is, well, what do you do after your regular lifetime of work in that really large amount of time in between? And I personally am doing some things that are really very interesting now. I'm the medical director of a medical technology firm. And I also have my own little startup in which I'm developing an app for people with mild memory problems. But it's not just all about me. I think what it is about is that really for the audience out there to think about, well, if you're after your normal working period of life, what do you do with the next period in your life to make it as fantastic as possible? And I guess fantastic aging would be a good way of thinking about active aging. But it's in that kind of concept. How do we do great things at this period of time? And it's really interesting now, because it's never been done before. All the baby boomers are coming. Yes. And I was reading this, and it says about 50 over 50. All of my children are over 50. It's like, what? Are they baby boomers? Oh, my goodness. Yes, 50. Yeah, and that's what it says here, 50. Right. Yeah, it's like, what? Yeah, our program at the. I'm sorry, go ahead. This is Meryl. And for you that watches regularly, Meryl is a regular with us. And thank you. We spend a lot of time at the Waikiki Community Center volunteering with Meryl. And she has these great programs, but the word aging is in the program. Maybe we could, as you suggest, maybe we just dropped the word aging. We have to acknowledge aging. I mean, we're talking the language. Languaging. You said you don't particularly care for that. How can we change that phrase? There is no good way of describing, and it's because in society, anything related to being older doesn't really feel good. So anything that sounds like older doesn't sound really good. So our entire audience knows that term, capuna. Yes. If you talk to most people in their 60s or 70s, it's, oh, I'm not a capuna. I'm not that old yet. But capuna in Hawaiian means wisdom. It sure does. Doesn't mean old, it just means wisdom. Right. As an elder. Yes. And it's respected. So what can we do in English that eliminates that word aging? How can we? You're the expert. We've actually been grappling with it. I've been with the community center and head of this program for three years. And it terrified me, actually. I was in denial about this thing called aging. And as I've grown through the program and seen our members actively aging and choosing to do fantastic things in this additional 20 or 30-year bonus, I'm realizing that it's really a good time. It is. Because you don't have to prove anything to anyone. And you have the opportunity to take the things that you're really passionate about or really interested about. As in your case, it's politics and people. People. And people. And bringing them together. And anything. And those gifts are gifts that perhaps in the work environment, we were not able to fully realize and actualize. So I'm okay with active aging now because I see so many of our members thriving. And our active aging program at the community center is called Thriving After 50. Now that's it. So we eliminate the word aging. Yes, yes. That seems to, for a lot of people, can't deal with that one. Can't deal with the word. Yes, the aging word is, like I say, I'm still in denial. But not as much as I was earlier. And thriving is a word that speaks to something greater than health. It's passion. It's a liveness. It's the opportunity to discover new things about yourself. And I think we have to look at that as an alternative. And I think that part of this is all children grow up with Walt Disney. And if you look at Walt Disney, all of the women that are Maleficent, all of the witches, right? They have the gray hair, the crooked nose, and they're evil. So children grow up with that image as, I don't want to be old. I don't want to be that cool thing. So as long as they grow up with all of these women, killing dogs, and it's like, oh my God. So that is that image that children get right from the beginning. I don't want to grow up like that. I don't want to be that. Yeah, I think it's a real challenge. There's a big stigma with getting older. Like Merle says, getting older actually can be fantastic. I've had that personal experience, but I'll be the first to say it's not easy. Yeah. It's not easy because you kind of have to own up that you're getting older. And the way society is, it's all about productivity. And we don't really have a society that really celebrates getting older. So I think the baby boomers are gonna change that. We're gonna say, wait a second. We're not gonna be old the way people were old before. We're gonna make it different. You're probably, Marcia, right at the front of that. But I've met many people who are really at the front of this, this is, wow, this is fantastic. It is, it is. And I think that in generations, you talk to young people, they have no idea what we're talking about. But generations before, especially for women that didn't live this long because they were washing sheets in the bathtub and scrubboards. And I remember hanging diapers on a line and now no one knows what cloth diapers are. And the work, the daily chores, wore the body out. And we don't have that anymore. Men in the coal mines and all of the other things. And they would come home from, just exhausted. And so much of that is because of the progress. And the day-to-day living doesn't take that much out of you anymore. And of course, with the advancement of information and technology, there are a lot of things that are much easier. Yes, yes, much easier to do, to deal with. And you read about people that, working on the farm and still had 10 children. You know, it's like, just unbelievable. Yes. Exactly, exactly. You know my friend, Yosie? Yes. Pineapple farm on Kauai, she's born, she's number 10 and her name is Yosie, which means the end. That's her story. But she came from a family that worked hard. Physically worked hard. Right, in order to survive. Yes. And no, none of her mother or father lived as long as she had. So Pineapple was an issue back then? Yes. I do wanna get back to the issue though, like in today's society, there's really no preparation for retirement. I mean, it's kind of like jumping off a cliff. Right. And I've talked with a lot of doctors and some doctors have very clear ideas about what they're gonna do. And a lot of doctors don't. And I kind of fell into that second boat and it was really rough for a while to try and figure out what's next because you have this huge amount of meaning in terms of you have a script that you follow in life, right? You go to school and you do that and then you succeed in school and then you go to work and every day you work hard and there's a script for that and then you retire and oops, what's the script? Who am I all of a sudden? Oh, I'm just sitting at home all day and that's not a good way to be. Well, we are going to take a break and when we come back, let's talk about where we go from here. Okay, what does that look like? Or how do we plan or do we plan? Anyway, we'll be back in one minute. Okay. This is Think Tech Hawaii, Raising Public Awareness. I'm getting older. Do I need to worry about falling? Yes, you do. Each year, one in four people, 65 and older will experience a fall and many will be serious. The majority of falls happen at home so remove things that could make you trip and install handrails to keep you steady. To learn more about the steps you can take to help prevent a fall, please talk to your doctor. You can also visit aarpfoundation.org or Medicaremadeclear.com slash falls. This message was brought to you by UnitedHealthcare and AARP Foundation. Hello, my name is Stephanie Mock and I'm one of three hosts of Think Tech Hawaii's Hawaii Food and Farmer series. Our other hosts are Matt Johnson and Pomei Weigert. And we talk to those who are in the fields and behind the scenes of our local food system. We talk to farmers, chefs, restaurant tours and more to learn more about what goes into sustainable agriculture here in Hawaii. We are on at Thursdays at 4 p.m. and we hope we'll see you next time. Aloha, and we're back. I'm Marsha and this is Navigating the Journey and today we are journeying into aging or being a kupuna. We decided we're not aging. Matureing. This is my dear friend, Meryl O'Neill and Dr. Wong. My son-in-law is a Wong. So can I talk about active aging and what our goal and target is through our community center programs? And it can be the goal for anyone that wants to take on this thing called the bonus years or the years after retirement until the time when they become frail as Dr. Wong has talked about. Or do we have to be frail? We'll come back to that one. Yeah, we'll come back to that one. So the goal of active aging for now is that we are looking to have our health span equal our life span. So what that means is that remain active until you're ready to say, OK, I'm throwing in the towel. So at the community center, as an example, we follow a profile of the different kinds of programs and things that people can do to extend that health span. And that includes everything from taking care of yourself medically to nutrition and exercise and emotional capabilities. And just keep everything in balance too so that you can remain as active and as productive as you choose to be. And we know that as you mature, there are things that happens to the body. So rather than wait for those things to happen, you be proactive and you move forward and try to find solutions. And there are lots of people. The medical field is wonderful for that in terms of ways to monitor yourself. But an area that is not frequently looked at, and I think this generation of those of us that are 50-plus or 65 or retired, are beginning to look at this thing called, OK, what is this next 20 years going to be like? What am I passionate about? Do I have a purpose in life? And can I contribute? Because here we are with nearly, by 2020, nearly one in four people in the state of Hawaii will be over 65 years old. And here is this wealth of well-educated individuals that have the experience that can now turn that experience to make for a better community. Now, I know years ago the lifespan wasn't this long. So 65, working until you were 65, seemed like the end. And now everybody's 65. So that whole idea of thinking about it, looking at it, other than, OK, we're going to go on a cruise, other than that, how do we, what I'm looking at, how do you prepare? What do you think we should do in terms of preparing for this next journey, the next part of, how do you prepare for that? Or do you? Or does it just show up? Well, actually, so I think that the way things are now, we just show up, and that has to change. That has to change. I think we're talking about a lot of programs, such as Merle's program, that are saying, let's rethink about how society is. And we're just the very beginning stage of that. There's a little organization that I'm a part of. We've decided to call ourselves the Hawaii Change Agents. And we're just starting to do some beginning thinking about how do we reframe society a little bit. Merle was pointing out, it's crazy when there's such a low unemployment rate, and then there's so many talented older people who could actually use a little bit of money. Why don't we create a society in which it's very easy to merge these two problems? But right now, a lot of those things that should be don't really exist right now. But we're kind of left on our own to rewire ourselves, because a lot of times when we retire, we think, oh, I don't like this. I don't know what to do now. And don't go through the process of rewiring and just go back to what they were doing before or go on the permanent cruise ship. I mean, I had talked to another colleague who said that he was really enjoying retirement for a while. Just basically go on vacations all the time. And then all of a sudden, he hit a wall with that. He said, I can't just keep vacationing all the time. And Merle was talking about this, that you go from being somebody that everybody knows to a person that nobody knows, who are you? And you can't rest on your merits from before because those don't come anymore. And now you have to say, well, who am I now? And that actually takes a lot of work to figure that out. But I really encourage people to do that. So I have an example of a friend just recently as a matter of fact, through our programs. We have a program that's called Conversation That Matters Restoring Community. And in that particular program, it was four sessions, there were some really, really poignant questions that were asked. One is, what gift are you holding ransom? Meaning, yes, I know questions like that that just absolutely puts you in the state of, I've never been asked this question. And out of that question, an individual came up who had been retired for nearly 20 years. And he said, you know what? I thought retirement was about doing what I wanted, when I wanted, and if I wanted. And he says, now I'm realizing that I have so many gifts that I've been holding in ransom that I have not shared, that I can share uniquely. And since that last session, which was in August, actually it was in early September, he has decided to become more active in reforming education. So I said, well, what would cause you to do that? You know it's a very difficult challenge. He goes, I know. But I know a lot of things that I can contribute. And I know I have the strategies and the method from my past successes. So he says, I'm going to try it. And he became so alive. Yes. And I was listening to this debate about the constitutional amendment for taxing for education. And all the pros and cons. And for anybody that's interested, they're on ThinkTech. If you just go to YouTube and ThinkTech for all the debates about this. So there's a drought of teachers. All of those retirees that are out there with all of these skills, can't we put them in the classroom? Maybe part-time. There's all of these people have skills, experience, knowledge that all of that can share. So why are we letting them sit on the sideline while we have children without teachers? Yeah, well, I have to say that, actually. There's a lot of teachers who really do want to retire from teaching. Yes. But I understand that. But I think we need to think really creatively. What about people who have never been teachers their entire lives and who are interested in saying, hey, this is something I want to get into. I want to give this a try and be able to contribute a little bit that way because whatever anybody really wants to do, it's different for every person. But here's your opportunity to do something that you didn't just get paid to do. Here's an opportunity to do something that you never did before and you really have passion for it. And you know what older people do have? They have time. Yes. So a good friend of mine is really interested in the environment and the beaches. And he spends a lot of time at the legislature talking about these issues because he's passionate about it. And I mean, before, he was working all the time. Yes. Right. Right. Right. We're faced with another issue. So I think what Warren is saying is that it's important that we spend the time to retool. Yes. In terms of the work situation, what we're finding because we have kind of an employment counseling type program at the center is that seniors are faced with ageism. Oh, yes. Oh, my goodness. I mean, you get in and as soon as they see your age, it's like you're done. However, we do have some leading edge employers that understand that with their senior employees, they can count on dependability. They'll be there on time. They'll stay the entire time until they strive to do a good job. Yes. And high reliability. Yes. Yeah, high reliability. And the 1964 Civil Rights Act, ageism, is one of those discriminations. Yes. It's there, even if we don't challenge people about it. But it is there. Can you imagine what age was in 1964 as to what it is now? Because in 1964, I never thought I'd get here. I didn't think. Oh, OK. But I love the idea of retooling, thinking who we are and creating a new being. OK, so we've got this old body, but we don't have to have an old soul, an old mind. We can retool, rethink. How can I use this body for pleasure, for good, for whatever? Right, right. I mean, and this is the generation. This is the great generation that has made tremendous social change. So why not again? Yes. So the conversations that matter, conversation that we're having is, how can we become that place where people can come and talk about retooling? Talk about the realities of retirement and prepare people for, I mean, yeah, take a couple years off. Give yourself a break from that intense 40-year career of spending 8, 10, 12 hours a day trying to. And four hours in traffic. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So how can we do that? Yeah, yeah. So at the center, do you have a place, an opportunity for that? We will make that opportunity. I think that, both of you, I think, what do you think? Yeah, there has to be a lot of odd change in the way we do things in society. And it comes a little bit at a time. I think that the baby boomers are different. I'm going to say, wait a second. We're not doing this. Yeah, like that. There are a lot of really active years. I mean, truly, 75 is the new 65. That's right. And people are aging and finding that they're living longer. And it's really important to make the best use of that. I think right now society in general has not done all that it can to make that happen. And I think we're starting to push for that. Well, thank you both for being here. And promise me you'll come back and spend some more time with us. So tell us, what have you got here? Well, to support individuals who are considering or are actively aging, we are having a senior wellness fair called Refresh, Rejuvenate, and Reset. Next Wednesday, October the 10th, from 2 to 5. At the Waikiki Community Center, which is, as the name says, in Waikiki. Right, at 310 Powell Kalani Avenue, which is between Cuyil and Alawai, about two blocks ever of the zoo. And then what about parking? I think people would always ask about parking. There is a parking on site. And we've arranged for parking at Jefferson Elementary School along Kapo Lou Avenue. And for anyone that is new to Honolulu, the Waikiki Community Center is one of the few places left of Old Hawaii. It is true. It is just delightful to be there. So again, thank you so much. And we will come visit your fair next week. Thank you. Aloha. And thank you, and we'll see you again.