A Boomer reflects on senior “engagement.”

No, I’m not talking about late-life romance, although someday I’d like to experience it!

I’m talking about what we are going to do with the rest of our lives.

As a person over 50 who is still “growing” her career, I’m keenly interested in senior workforce issues.The big question seems to be not whether we can work (we can) or if we want to work (many of us do—or must), but who will hire us.

Especially for jobs that don’t involve wearing red vests and shopping carts.

The other buzz word for seniors is “civic engagement.” Why not, the thinking goes, harness all that wisdom and time to do the really important work of the world that’s so often unpaid?

I’ve been impatient with my Boomer generation for a long time because it seems so many of us are working mainly on our flesh tone and our golf swings. We seem to have forgotten that we were going to transform the world.

Of course, the senior as full-time player is a media image, so it’s not really “true.” Besides working, plenty of Boomers are volunteering in schools, driving more senior seniors to appointments, serving in city governments, setting up angel funds to help seed important social causes, building houses in inner cities and Costa Rica.

Now it seems like everyone wants to harness our energy. Here’s what Civic Ventures has to say:

Now arriving: the experience generation

The first of 77 million baby boomers turn 60 in 2006. They are on the front edge of the largest, healthiest, best educated population of Americans ever to move through and beyond their fifties.

They are pioneers in a new stage spanning the decades between middle and late life. Neither young nor old, they represent an extraordinary pool of social and human capital. And, in large numbers, they want to do work that serves a greater good. . .

But too often, their individual enthusiasm is stymied by perceptions, policies, and practices that discourage the sharing of experience. As a result, this growing number of Americans represents a largely untapped resource in a nation with many unmet needs.

Imagine unleashing their potential.

It’s that last line that gets me: just who is going to unleash our potential? Shouldn’t we be doing that ourselves?

It would be great to present a better picture of what’s actually going on already, formally and informally. Please share your stories of civic engagement by seniors in the Milwaukee area, whether “young” or old seniors. You can write them in the comments section and I’ll transfer them to the blog body.