Why is age just a number to you?

The number of years I have lived is not associated with any thought or image that I could feel personally addressed by. I am old, yes. I have a lot of life experience, yes. But I already had that when I was 20. I already carried the entire cosmos of my childhood within me. But at that age I was not able to get to grips with what I had experienced. Understanding and digesting it required an enormous effort on my part and 'devoured' a few years of my life. But I was still young, even though I had undergone a profound transformation, a process of maturation. Maturation continues, is never complete, as long as I go through the day awake and attentive.

In society, old age is associated with many superficial cliches that try to put us in a category. Give up. A human life cannot be compressed into statistics; every life is unique. Today, as a senior citizen, I am simply still the person who has looked out into the world through my eyes since I was born and who absorbs, feels, experiences, processes and decides for this or that through my body, my senses and my thoughts.

What do you like most/least about getting older?

I felt resistance to the fact that a government mechanism determines that I will retire at a certain point in my life. The supposed relief of finally being able to stop working does not apply to me, and putting myself into involuntary retirement is simply not a concept that fits into my life story and my sensibilities. I like working, I still do.

What I like most is the freedom I have today to organize each day and that the pressure to earn money has diminished.

What advice would you like to pass on to the younger generation?

Happiness lies in being connected to your inner self in what you do on the outside. So my tip: connect with your inner self and follow what you find there if you feel unhappy, empty or disorientated.

Why do you want to continue pursuing meaningful work?

Being active means being alive. I don't like the way society is divided into age categories. I would rather see public life as a large market of supply and demand in which I can participate, that is, give and take - and thus be integrated until the end.

If you had one wish, what would you wish for?

I somehow have a longing for rural life, even though, like most Swiss people, I am used to urban life and mental work. I would like there to be farms, a modern form of agricultural enterprise on a cooperative basis, where anyone could live temporarily or part-time, volunteer and work, regardless of social background, age or origin.

What would you like to tell the seniors@work team?

I would like to thank the seniors@work team for this platform and the opportunity to network in this way. Is there perhaps a need specific to seniors?