In keeping with a generation\u2019s fascination with itself, the time has come to note the passing of another milestone: On New Year\u2019s Day, the oldest members of the Baby Boom Generation will turn 65, the age once linked to retirement, early bird specials and gray Velcro shoes that go with everything.<\/p>\n
Though other generations, from the Greatest to the Millennial, may mutter that it\u2019s time to get over yourselves, this birthday actually matters. According to the Pew Research Center, for the next 19 years, about 10,000 people \u201cwill cross that threshold\u201d\u009d every day \u201d\u201d and many of them, whether through exercise or Botox, have no intention of ceding to others what they consider rightfully theirs: youth.<\/p>\n
This means that the 79 million baby boomers, about 26 percent of this country\u2019s population, will be redefining what it means to be older, and placing greater demands on the social safety net. They are living longer, working longer and, researchers say, nursing some disappointment about how their lives have turned out. The self-aware, or self-absorbed, feel less self-fulfilled, and thus are racked with self-pity.<\/p>\n