WHAT IS MCBS LATEST BOOK?
MCB has completed a new book entitled Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom that will be available in September, 2010. As readers will remember, she has long argued that increased longevity is not a matter of addition but of multiplication, so increases in life expectancy involve changes in the entire life cycle. One fundamental change is that we have shifted from a three generation society to a four generation society, one with lots of active grandparents who are mobile and active, while the pattern of “long memories and short walks” has shifted to the great grandparents, present in large number for the first time in history. Bateson has coined the term “active wisdom” to describe the potential of older adults. She has argued that a new era of consciousness raising is needed as older adults rid themselves of out of date stereotypes of aging and discover the kinds of engagement that will complete the composition of their lives.