Women over 50 are the world’s largest demographic. Imagine what we can do! That’s the message from Jane Fonda and it is so moving and inspiring that I wanted to share.

We are living 34 years longer than our grandparents – an entire third age. It is indeed a longevity revolution. Jane Fonda calls those additional three decades the Third Act and she describes getting older as the opposite of decline, but mounting a staircase in which we find ourselves and make ourselves whole. It seems like the perfect message for the Truth In Aging community.

I just conducted a survey of Truth In Aging readers and when asked which women you wanted to be like when growing older, the overwhelming majority of you said “yourselves”. The TIA community member is independent and self-confident. I can see us using our Third Act , as Ms Fonda says, to make a positive contribution and, as much as anything else, be reconciled with our past and allow our spirit’s to evolve into wisdom and authenticity.

These were some of the themes of an extraordinary speech that Jane Fonda gave to TEDXWomen, a conference that took place last November and which I just got around to looking up. Here’s the video and, while its true that I can cry at a cat food commercial, I defy you not to simultaneously weep and shout whoopee when you get to the end. Go Jane! Go us girls in our Third Act!