For some older people, the rocking chair still beats rocking out

When The Rolling Stones announced plans recently for another world tour, performing their 34-year-old hit "Brown Sugar" and other songs at a New York news conference, it evoked the usual snickers about sexagenarians, drugs and rock 'n' roll.

But while Mick Jagger, who will be 62 when the tour begins in August, and Keith Richards, who turns 62 in December, may be aging rockers, they are also something else: active seniors.

In that sense, they are not unlike millions of other people. These days, older people are not supposed to be sitting in a rocking chair, but doing things they didn't have time for in the past — studying Italian in Florence, say, or learning the difference between a demi-glace and a veloute at the Cordon Bleu, jetting off to an archaeological dig in Timbuktu or a trek in Nepal or even skydiving, as former President George Bush did last year on his 80th birthday.

Because people are living longer and staying healthier longer, of course, they can afford experiences they could only dream about in their youth. And plenty of companies offer those experiences — for a fee.

But it's not just that people have the option of keeping busy. In some ways, society is demanding that they do so — to be less of a drain on resources, to remain physically and mentally fit, and as a source of support for the pharmaceutical and other aging-related industries.

Dr. James H. Hinterlong, a professor of social work at Florida State University, said past theories held that "healthy aging was characterized by people disengaging from meaningful life activities."

"This was considered not only good for the person, but good for society," Hinterlong said, in that it cleared the way for younger people to take over activities and roles.

That disengagement theory was eventually discarded, he said, as gerontologists realized that many older people liked to stay active. "There was a view that activity was good, but no distinction as to type of activity," Hinterlong said.

Even that view changed as life spans lengthened. "People used to consider what their legacy was going to be," he said. "Then they realized that a lot of old people had many good years ahead of them, and part of that legacy could still be established."

The Rolling Stones are still establishing their legacy, although their concerts consist mostly of old hits. And there is a financial incentive for staying active. The band's last tour, in 2002-2003, grossed more than $300 million.

But it's not just money that drives Jagger and Richards — and Charlie Watts, 63, and Ron Wood, the baby of the group at 57 — to keep performing.

"That's what they know how to do," said Dr. Nancy Morrow-Howell, a professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis. "They're going to continue to do it."

In that sense, too, they are not unlike many older people. Those who study aging say that people's patterns of behavior usually do not change just because they get older.

"People are who they are throughout their life course," said Morrow-Howell. "People who are really active are going to want to continue being active."

"It's far from me to judge anybody's wish to go bungee jumping," said James Atlas, a New York writer and book publisher and the author of a recent memoir, "My Life in the Middle Ages." But many of those experiences are artificial, he said.

Far better, he said, to have something develop organically out of a lifelong interest. "I happen to have spent my life in reading and writing," he said. "I'm now in the book business, which emerges naturally out of my preoccupation.

"That will spare me the discomfort of having to sleep in a tent in Nepal."

•	For some older people, the rocking chair still beats rocking out Inside Bay Area (CA), Tuesday, June 21, 2005 Byline: Henry Fountain, New York Times