Some Grandmas really are Wild Things!
You can retire from a job, but don't ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.
Australia has been perpetuating ridiculous stereotypes ever since Chips Rafferty came to the screen. His nasal drawl and odd sayings use to make our skin crawl. "We're nothing like that!" we'd scream. Yet in any movie about Australia, he'd ride on in. Despite what we know to be true, Australians still willingly go with the stereotypes offered. Don't think so? Just watch how quickly you can become invisible in the workplace, now you're a woman of "a certain age".
Lately Politicians are hinting that an ageing population is "becoming a significant issue" like Lyssavirus or finding you'd grown a third eye. The Bureau of Statistics gives projections of data pregnant with doom. What none acknowledge is the contribution the ageing give to our country.
This theme has been a thread in my own work. My friend Marn breaks all the stereotypes and helped inspire my book "My Grandma is a Wild Thing" because she played drums, rode a motorbike and swung from a jungle gym to pose for my drawings. What's more Marn speaks "Kid" in all its forms – eloquently and with love. She's a dynamic part of work and family. Yet stereotypes of aging persist.
I hatched "The Chook* Book of Wisdom" when a farmer friend was about to go home and dispose of his chooks. The problem? They'd stopped laying. Was he crazy? They were just menopausal – they had heaps of good years. He thought it a hoot. The chooks were saved. Let's hope we are too.
Australia has to get over the idea that passive earners don't contribute. Let's show our currency. Dare to be different. Grasp every opportunity to contribute to the quality of our own lives and in so doing, contribute to the quality of others too.
Gemma Sisia has a big dream to fight poverty through education.
The charity that she and the Rock Doctor champion is St Judes in Tanzania, a brilliant school educating kids out of poverty.
Photo Source: Honey Clarke's Blog and St Jude's Website.
*Chook is an Aussie colloquialism for a chicken.