The book starts by asking what is creative aging? And suggests it involves a long process that grows from all of life s experience, if you have the courage to learn the lessons given to you by your own unique life journey. It shows how difficult it is to age positively in a culture that denies and denigrates aging. At age 85, the author, Ruby Abrahams uses her own experience and that of others she has known, to suggest ways of examining the life experience, so that lessons can be learned. Thus, older people become elders growing in their own wisdom and contributing with that wisdom to their families and communities.