I have many baby-boomer friends who are beginning to be hard of hearing, but refuse to seek hearing-aid solutions. As a result, we often have to find restaurants that are deserted or yell at one another in noisy and popular ones.
Then, there are those who can no longer read the fine print on menus when dining out. But instead of putting on reading glasses, they pass the job of food-and-beverage selections to their offsprings or others with better eyesights.
In spite of the thriving, multi-billion-dollar anti-aging industry, many boomers are in denial. They do not want to admit that they are aging and, worse, they believe that if they don’t confront the problems head-on, they might just not exist and go away!
Even the 47-year-old former Minister of Defense, Peter MacKay, was caught on camera two days ago for not being able to read the fine print when swearing in as the new Minister of Justice. “Fresh Faces and Aging Eyes” became the headline for many political blogs and newspapers covering Stephen Harper’s new cabinet the following day. MacKay might not be a boomer, but he certain needs to face reality about having corrective lenses to do his job.
The same applies to those who have been trying to survive with their hearing challenges with judicious guesswork and pretending to get a joke when they really missed out half of what’s been said. Hearing aids are now so high-tech that they’ve become smaller, almost invisiblle, and even come in matching skin colours. Imagine the immediate relief of being able to hear the birds sing in the morning or discern every high note played by the symphony! Boomers were the early adopters of Sony Walkman headphones or we’ve simply attended too many rock concerts during the 60s and 70s, and now we have to bear all the repercussions.
I believe that baby boomers are also trained to be great problem-solvers. So all boomers who are visually- or audibly-challenged should stop being stubborn and try seek out solutions with optometrists and audiologists. It’s about time we let go of our vanity and continue to face our aging realities by improving ourselves with the latest scientific innovations in visual and audio aids.
I don’t know why people are OK with glasses but think that hearing aids are somehow a sign of age. I got them a year and a half ago and they are life-changing. They are also very high tech; mine connect via bluetooth directly to my iPhone so I can listen to music and podcasts when I am running, answer the phone at the press of a button. They are so small that nobody knows I have them on and so comfortable that I have to check twice before I get into the shower to be sure I am not wearing them.