'Disrupting Aging' Comes to the Berkshires| 03:14PM / Monday, May 09, 2016 | |
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PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Berkshire County is home to one of the fastest growing populations of older adults in Massachusetts and across the country. In fact, about 21 percent of the population is currently over 65, and that number is expected to grow.
Our culture tells us that aging will change us against our will, and for the worse. Dr. Bill Thomas, an internationally acclaimed longevity expert argues that our cultural view of aging is all wrong.
Blending myth and science, live music and visuals, Dr Bill Thomas’ "Age of Disruption Tour" is a modern day Chautauqua (Chautauqua is an adult educational movement that Theodore Roosevelt called “the most American thing in America”) that is barnstorming the country in a rock 'n' roll tour bus. The "Age of Disruption Tour" will bring a highly disruptive understanding of aging to the Berkshire community and will challenges audience members to reject ageist stereotypes and embrace the moments of our lives that offer the greatest risk, reward, and possibility.
This "once-in-a lifetime” event is on Tuesday, May 17, at the Colonial Theater, and is made possible through a generous community of supporters.
The 2016 tour kick off begins with an afternoon community-based workshop titled "Disrupt Dementia" from 2:30 5 p.m. This community engagement workshop features an exclusive documentary film by "Alive Inside" director Michael Rossato-Bennett, followed by an interactive live music experience and community building exercise. Designed for people living with dementia and those who care about them, this program will give voice to and empower people living with forgetfulness and cognitive change. It calls all of us to experience a new vision of intergenerational engagement and help re-imagine the way society thinks about and treats people living with forgetfulness.
The Lobby Experience begins at 5 p.m. and is about building community. It features food, music, activities and fun.
The evening gala performance, "Life’s Most Dangerous Game" at 7 p.m. is a mixed-media show that begins with a light-hearted look at just how “crazy” our culture’s perspective on normal aging can be, and then asks, what if? What if we all lived in a world that saw aging not as a process of decline but rather as the entrée to life’s most dangerous game?
“Aging can be reimagined as a vivid and enlivening process that presents us with extraordinary risks, and rewards,” Dr. Thomas said. “So, how are we supposed to play this most dangerous of all games? And what do winning and losing look like?"
For more information or to purchase tickets to events, visit www.drbillthomas.org. Tickets can also be purchased locally at Home Instead Senior Care. All tickets are $15.
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