What was it about turning sixty that led me to form a group to talk about it? Traditionally, sixty-five has been the age of attaining senior status, along with Social Security and Medicare. But for me, sixty held a certain heaviness or import as a life transition that fifty or forty did not. Since my mother turned 90 and my father 85, I have come to think of life in thirds: from birth to 30, from 30 to 60, and from 60 to 90. I experienced sixty as a turning point that marked the beginning of the transition from work and family responsibility to retirement and later life. Whether we are actually retired or not, I believe we enter a time of transition from 60 to 65. Though my friends and I look and feel middle-aged, we are no longer middle-aged, but not yet senior.

To be totally honest, another reason I wanted to connect with my "sisters in sixty" was because I suffer from an obscure malady I call Boomer Envy. This malady is characterized by irritation every time the Baby Boom generation (five years younger than I) gets credit for doing something that every adult does as he or she advances through the lifespan. Much of this attention to the Boomers has to do with our marketing-dominated culture. Marketers chase numbers so they tend to ignore my generation to focus on the larger Boomer age cohort. For example, for female Boomers, menopause is now "vibrant, confident, and romantic," according to an ad for a hormone replacement product. Of course, the Boomers are credited with reinventing retirement before they have even retired. For example, Mindy Cameron's column in the Seattle Times for 4/1/01 is headlined "Leave It to the Boomers to Reinvent Retirement" and discusses the potential for all those Boomers to transform retirement and society as they retire.

My generation has also been a pioneering group. We are the ones who grew up under one set of rules and expectations for women (and men) and then confronted a different set of rules and expectations after we had begun our adult lives. Many of us were among the first women to venture into previously untrod career territory. Many of us were among the first users of new medications such as birth control pills.

The discussion group gave me a chance to compare my thoughts and feelings with other women in my age group. Friends and friends-of-friends joined the conversation. We were a middle and upper-middle class group, well-educated and mostly financially secure, what I call the WWWs--well-off white women--of the world. We met weekly and talked about the following topics:

• We are "younger" at 60 than ever before. What does 60 look and feel like today?
• New roles at 60
• Image of the 60 year old woman in our culture
• How the women's movement influenced your life
• Does the marketplace meet your needs?
• Caring for your health and the aging process
• Is spirituality more important now?
• My legacy: How will I make the world a better place?
• Unfinished business: What's next?

The following three themes emerged from our conversations: the impact of the women's movement on our lives, our ongoing individuality in the context of shared experience, and the need to maintain a long-term perspective.

First, the modern women's movement, which will influence our older years as well, changed the social and cultural landscape and shifted our individual mind sets. It gave us a new set of glasses through which to see the world. The change in the status of women that ensued has affected not only our active adult lives of work and family, but also influences the way we age, how we think of ourselves at sixty, and the things we can comfortably do in the last third of our lives. For example, it wasn't very long ago that it took great courage for a woman alone (whether single or married) to travel or to attend social events on her own. Today there are journals dedicated to the solo woman traveler, regardless of age, for example, Journeywoman Online. The general opening up of society and our independent status as women have resulted in greater freedom of movement for us, whether we travel on our own or pursue a nontraditional interest.

A second theme that emerged from the group is that there is no single dominant condition in the lives of women at sixty today. We are each our unique selves--some still working full or part-time, others just retired and savoring the freedom of no schedule; some just divorced or widowed or beginning a new romance; many still responding to the demands of caregiving, whether for elderly parents or grandchildren; all pursuing our diverse interests and duties with our distinctive personalities and competencies. In other words, we are not some stereotypical group of post-menopausal "little old ladies." I dwell on this point that we are all individuals because it is easy to succumb to the tendency to lump older people into a group and to stereotype them. We are not all the same. We are as different as we age as we were in our earlier years.

If we avoid being stereotyped, we may instead find that we are invisible at sixty. We are not easily identified because we blend in nicely with our younger sisters in their fifties, thanks to our concern with health and fitness and an occasional assist from the cosmetics industry. We are also invisible because our mass culture ignores us, along with most everyone else over 30. However, organizations like AARP and Elderhostel have developed a mass culture targeted at people over 50, now that the Boomers are turning 50 in large numbers. One organization has drawn a sharp distinction between programs for Boomers and for older retirees. I can feel a resurgence of Boomer Envy as I write this.

The third theme that arose from the group experience is the need to maintain a long-term perspective even at 60. As I mentioned earlier, I tend to think about life in thirds: from birth to 30, from 30 to 60, and from 60 to 90. I was startled to realize that if I live from 60 to 90, that is as long a time as living from 30 to 60. When I think of all the family, friends and acquaintances, successes and disappointments, joys and sorrows and celebrations in my life from 30 to 60, I am amazed that I might have the opportunity for another lifetime of adventures in the world.

I am not a Pollyanna. I know that health problems and slowing physical and mental processes will make the next 30 years different in character from the last 30 years. (To that, I say thank goodness!) What is most astounding is to consider the sheer amount of time I probably have left--even though it does seem to go faster!

In many ways, people who are sixty today are not that different from people who were fifty in our parent's generation. In the not so distant past, only the fortunate few could avail themselves of medical advances regarding aging and health. Today with a little effort, we can all put into practice our knowledge of prevention, fitness, diet, and emotional well-being. I can't deny that as we age, we become more vulnerable to illness, especially chronic illnesses. However, today people of all ages are living full lives with chronic illnesses of all kinds. In this respect, older people are like everyone else, only a little older.

At sixty it is certainly time to seize the day and smell the roses if you have not already adopted that lifestyle. But I assert that it is also a time for new longer range plans for a vital and active life for the next 10, 15 or 20 years. Consider how you will spend your gift of time, very likely an additional decade or two of active late adult life often unencumbered by the daily demands of career and family.

We have a great gift of time to reinvent ourselves, to realize an unfulfilled dream, to restore a broken relationship, to make the world a better place and to approach our final years without regrets.

Talking about turning 60 with my women friends deepened my awareness of the bonds I share with my generation and reinforced my determination to make the next third of my life really matter.