The Senior Scene

As around 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 in America every day, seniors are expected to outnumber children within the next 15 years. So some tech companies are shifting their focus to this “active aging” market, which is expected to reach nearly $30 billion by 2023.

Already, about 6 million older adults live alone. Startups in particular are launching new technoogy tools designed to help them age in place independently. One such product is IrisVision, a smart headset to help the vision-impaired and legally blind regain their sight.

IrisVision (Irisvision.com) combines virtual reality hardware and a customized Samsung smartphone to enable low-vision patients to see the faces of loved ones, watch television, read books, work, cook and travel. Developed by vision scientists at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University and University of California-Berkeley, IrisVision is backed by the National Eye Institute and approved by the Federal Drug Administration as a medical device.

Some other tech products with an eye on older adults:

• Lively, an online retailer, sells hearing aids that come with two years of on-demand audiologist service. Customers can get it all in the comfort of their living room.
• Aira combines a mobile app, optional smart glasses, and a dashboard to capture information in a senior’s environment that trained agents can use to direct them through virtually any activity, all in real time and on demand.

Three pickleball players from Lakewood Community Center came away with medals in a recent tournament that drew players from across the country as far away as the Atlantic coast.

Top national players were drawn to the tourney in eastern Washington by its prize money and the host, Tyson McGuffin, the nation’s leading men’s singles player.

Bev Utt and CJ Morlan from the Lakewood contingent won gold medals in the under-50 age group, 3.0 skill-level doubles competition. They won their first three matches and entered the championship match undefeated. They then played their final match against a team whose only loss in earlier matches had been to Utt and Morlan.

After losing the first two games and the match, thereby tying their opponent’s record of one loss, the Lakewood team immediately began a playoff match of one game to break the tie. Winners would be champions. The experience of Utt and Morlan against a younger team prevailed, producing a winning score of 15-8 in a nerve-wracking but happy end to their day.

Utt teamed with Steve Thorndill for a bronze medal in the mixed doubles competition in the 3.0 skill-level and under-and-over-50-year-old bracket. They won their first two matches but lost their third 16-14. Had they won that squeaker, they would have played in the gold medal final.

Utt’s gold medal equaled her gold medal performance in the Washington State Senior Games last August, and Morlan’s gold medal play complemented her two bronze medals in the state Games.

Age is an artificial barrier that too many people use to put limitations on their brains, their potential, and their lives. In “Your Best Is Next,” author and public speaker Ira Blumenthal uses real-life examples to inspire and empower mature readers to focus on creating a life they love. He contends that through passion, commitment and conviction, you can make your dreams a reality–because if not now, when?

Blumenthal uses real-life examples, such as celebrities and influencers throughout history who found their calling in their mature years, and suggests action strategies to inspire and empower mature readers to focus on creating a life they love.

 A revolution is underway that will reshape America’s workforce. People in their 50s and 60s are launching new businesses at nearly twice the rate of 20somethings. Americans are getting older, living longer, and working well into the traditional retirement years.

So says Chris Farrell, journalist and senior economics contributor to “Marketplace,” American Public Media’s nationally syndicated radio program. In “Purpose and a Paycheck: Finding Meaning, Money, and Happiness in the Second Half of Life” (HarperCollins Leadership), Farrell combines scholarly research with firsthand reporting to debunk the popular myth that our aging population is a burden on the economy.

“Older adults are looking for a ‘calling, not a job,’” says Farrell. “Forging connections that keep people engaged in the economy in the second half of life—rather than labeling them unproductive and uncreative—is a recipe in the twenty-first century for fueling creativity, encouraging innovation and boosting economic growth.”

Novelist Gary Dickson chronicles a young man’s coming of age and rebellious love with a French high-society countess in “An Improbable Pairing.”

Amidst a 1960s setting of haute couture, three-star gourmet restaurants, and lavish hotel suites, an American graduate student traveling in Europe meets and falls for a French divorcee whose mother and ex-husband strongly disapprove of the resulting affair. All agree that something’s got to give in the coupling of a Yankee of traditional attitudes and an independent, self-confident woman from the domains of rank and privilege. (Amazon and other retailers).