When the movie “About Schmidt” came out in 2002, our neighbor Gene told us we must go see it. Gene happened to be a Jack Nicholson impersonator, often hired to portray him at parties. He was also Nicholson’s body double for the movie. Since our neighbor is a funny guy, we assumed the movie would be a comedy.
We were wrong.
The movie follows Warren Schmidt (Nicholson) on his journey to figure out what to do after retirement. Early in the movie there is a retirement party to celebrate Schmidt’s long years of service. While his successor and others are trying to honor Schmidt often using humorous stories and comments, everything said leaves him feeling insufficient, depressed, and alone. We left the movie wondering, “If we are what we do and we don’t do it anymore, then who are we?”
Like “About Schmidt,” many things in our society related to aging are darker than one would expect.
For instance, we use greeting cards to mark the birthdays and other life milestones of the people we care about. Yet how often do you look for a retirement card or a birthday card for someone older than 40 and can’t find one that reflects the positive things you feel and wish for this person? The next time you are shopping for cards, pay close attention—you’ll probably find that many of the celebratory cards have a negative spin to them, and the ones with “jokes” seem more gloomy than funny. This happened to me so often that I now make my own cards or I buy blank cards and write my own message.