Mick Jagger, Bernie Sanders, and Stephen Breyer

Mick Jagger is 80 years old, yet he’s still giving concerts. Bernie Sanders is 82, yet still sharp as a tack. Stephen Breyer is 85 years old, and is still arguing brilliantly on the Supreme Court.

These are just a few famous people who’ve aged well. Here are some more, in a wide variety of fields, from music to science.

Betty White filmed herself when she was 99 years old, 11 days before she died. She looked great. Suzelle Poole continues to dance the ballet at age 79 and Willie Nelson continues to perform at the age of 91.

Margaret Atwood is 84 years old and wrote The Testaments when she was 79.
Cynthia Ozick wrote Antiquities at age 93. Jane Goodall is still cogent and interesting at 90, and Noam Chomsky is 95.

I’ve known and worked under older professors — still mentally sharp in their 80s.

I think when someone does work that he or she enjoys, whether it’s mental or physical, it can help keep them young.

In my own life — my mother is 84 and my uncle is 82. One of my grandmothers lived to be 98 years old. Until she turned 94, she was still walking to the market every day.

Meanwhile, my uncle has gone mountain biking in his 70s. He’s had to slow down the past few years but he still stays mentally active and goes for long walks. My mother has diabetes and arthritis so she doesn’t do as much physically but she still cooks delicious food for us, reads history and literature, and plays cards with me.

The fact is that being old doesn’t necessarily mean someone is no longer capable. People do slow down, of course.

For example, my ex’s father owned his own business. He didn’t want to retire at age 65 but he did sell his company at 70 with the condition he would be a consultant. Then he had the best of both worlds — he worked part time while having the freedom to travel and enjoy visiting with his children and grandchildren. He kept that up for 10 years, when he finally got to a point where he needed assisted living.

Unfortunately, sometimes people stay in their positions too long, at least according to public opinion.

In the case of an aging performer — if they no longer entertain, people will stop going to their shows. In the case of a writer — they will stop buying their books. And so on.

What about aging politicians?

The reason this has become an issue is that many of President Biden’s former supporters have been asking him to resign. They think he’s too old.

However, he is certainly not the only politician who is showing or has shown his age. His opponent, former President Donald Trump, is also showing his age, yet no one is pressuring him to make way for a younger person.

Sen. Mitch McConnell has frozen in front of the camera several times. The recently deceased Sen. Dianne Feinstein was 90 and still serving when she passed. According to the LA Times, starting under President Obama she was starting to show signs of declinging function.

Other politicians, from Woodrow Wilson to FDR to Ronald Reagan did not age well in office.

While we accept declining function in other fields, should we when it comes to something as important as the course of our nation?

However, it makes no sense to have a hard and fast age limit because we have people like Sen. Bernie Sanders who is still going strong.

Additionally, we live in a country where peoples’ votes matter.

So even if “experts” think Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnell or President Biden should quit — it doesn’t matter if the voters want them.

One example was Storm Thurmond who was first Governor and then Senator of South Carolina. I remember when I lived in that state for a few years, my friends and I used him as a punchline. We would never have voted for him, for a variety of reasons, including how badly he’d aged. However, he served as a Senator for 48 years, until he died at age 100, because the majority of voters wanted him.

Similarly, the majority of Democrats have voted for Joe Biden. They like him and want him. So when celebrities and others talk about asking him to resign — they are going against the will of the voters. In this country we do not have coronations, we have elections.

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This post was previously published on Shefali O’Hara’s blog.

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