San Francisco book publisher Chronicle has recently released a GREAT photography book, The Wonder Years: Portraits of Athletes Who Never Slow Down. The book interviews, photographs and tells the stories of older adults and seniors who keep on engaging in their favorite physical pursuits such as swimming, running, surfing and many others. The photographs are wonderful and the interviews capture why these people keep on keeping on doing what they love.

The central theme of the book is that America has long been fixated on its youth and that our culture brands aging as a bad thing to be avoided. The photographs, interviews and stories in the book present an alternative where aging men and women continue to grow while growing older. This growth is done by running, swimming, surfing and even trying to rope a steer. Aging is cast as an opportunity to reinvent and stretch oneself throughout the book.

The book also features a forward by gold-medal winner Peggy Fleming who got first place in figure skating at the 1968 Winter Olympics.

While we don’t focus on the physical at Engage As You Age, we do believe that it is every bit as important as continuing to be cognitively stimulated.Whether you want to learn how to surf or learn a new language, we’re all for it. Life is what you make out of it. The key is to continue being engaged with things that you love (whether it is an old hobby or learning something new).

To learn more about the book you can go to the Chronicle Books website. Click here to learn more about Engage As You Age.