Imagining the 'baffling geography' of age

This article explores later life as a special moment for the imagination, for persons of all ages. If we were to routinely ask ourselves what is the life we hope to be able to look back on, we would increase the likelihood that our ultimate life review would bring us deeper satisfaction. Why, then, do we not devote more attention to imagining our future lives and inviting that vision to help guide us, without which we deprive ourselves of contemplating a life of other possibilities. The article reviews the limited research which has been done on imagining old age, and relates this to data gathered over a twenty year period with an East German actress and activist, who engages with the study of her own aging as "reading a crime novel."