Inflated opinion

I recently watched Frank Skinner's TV documentary which painted a portrait of George Formby as a hugely successful artist of his time.  Nothing new there; I'd kind of understood something of Formby's standing before watching the program, but one small twist shone a totally new light on the man, and made me reflect on the power of what Skinner did in the presentation.

Whilst the film footage of Formby to me at least looked dated; of a performer from a certain era, what amazed me was how Skinner had calculated Formby's earnings in today's money.

Formby commanded a fee of £1.5 million per film (and he starred in over 30)
Formby's father, himself a successful artist took home £58,000 per week in today's money

Suddenly, simply by using salary figures that equate to today's stars I was perceiving Formby in a new light; as a savvy, commercially powerful brand and industry leader of his time.  I was drawn to enquire more and ask how did he manage to negotiate such good deals? How did he create and maintain such a strong brand? How did he differentiate himself from the inevitable competition and remain on top?

In musing through these questions I began thinking about contemporary icons; the David Beckham and Robbie Williams sprang to mind for some reason.  Suddenly I'm no longer seeing an old man in Formby but in many ways a peer or role model to current superstars.  And all with a simple recalculation.

I wonder how much differently the older generations would be perceived if everything they referred to was presented in today's real money terms?  Their first house, car, wages, suit, etc.  Would we still chuckle at the cheapness of everything back in the day or realise that we could learn a thing or two ourselves. Whilst it might feel good knowing that your house is worth 20 x the value of your parent's first house it's important to not get an inflated opinion of oneself.

Valuing older people as super-managers

People in care homes are learners. Of course they are; perhaps more so than at any other time in life.  Why? Well okay the brain forms fastest in the first 2,000 days of life but what I'm talking about here is another form of learning; the everyday learning that is needed to manage complex health conditions and manage change.

Complex health issues are perhaps easier to understand than managing change; indeed both intertwine.  As far as health goes, every day is like a balancing act managing symptoms and effects of choices and behaviours. Hard enough, but layer onto this the need to manage the loss of what used to be better in life as well as taking the risks associated with learning to benefit from new technologies and you get the picture.

The sheer nature of having lived many years means older people have more memories to manage and to integrate into a coherent narrative. More accumulated knowledge and historical perspective bears down on every contemporary national event and policy as well as a person's private world.  Incredible skill and processing is taking place every day to help shape understanding and maintain a healthy, balanced perspective on life without becoming totally overwhelmed by infinite ruminating.

And yet increasingly we have marginalised older people from society in favour of almost exclusively young thought leaders.  No wonder then that older people feel deeper undervalued and often suffer from social isolation with its serious health implications.

Care homes are full of people with incredibly rich and diverse histories, and yet the system seems reluctant to see this.  Risk aversion has become a dominant culture, overriding creative engagement with older people whereby they are empowered to pursue purposeful activities and make a meaningful contribution to their community and the wider society.