[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="256"]
Bevival's Twitter[/caption]
The Stillman School of Business and the College of Arts & Sciences in collaboration with bevival.com on Oct. 28 in the Nursing Amphitheatre, room 113 hosted a discussion on impermanence and new perspectives on mortality focusing on Baby Boomers and how their deaths will lead to a change in America’s history and future.
Bevival is a service aimed to change the conversation surrounding the topic of death. As stated in the bevival event press release, Caren Martineau is a “local entrepreneur and branding veteran” who started bevival. com, an online platform aimed at “modernizing mortality.” She created the series IMPERMANENCE, which the bevival press release said is a “thought-leadership panel series.”
Martineau said in an email interview that, “The largest generation in history (76 million baby boomers) has entered their ‘golden years’. Over the next 30 years, America will experience a massive cultural shift prompted by an unprecedented wave of dying.”
As a result of the Baby Boomer generation aging, the bevival press release projects that by 2050 “there will be more people over the age of 50 than under 18.”
The bevival website said that the Baby Boomer generation will make up 20 percent of the U.S. population in 2050. The generation currently makes up 23 percent of the population and thus will decrease by 3 percent.
Martineau said, “By partnering with academic institutions and private industry, we can, collectively, bring awareness and fresh thinking to a natural part of our lifecycle.”
To prepare for this “cultural shift” Martineau said, “Healthcare institutions, non-profits, government agencies, academia, are doing what they can to bring the “death” conversation out into the open.” She said she started bevival because, “Time has come to expose and reframe the dialogue so that the Millennials, GenXer’s and GenY’s will have a much better outcome.”
Students hold differing views and beliefs on mortality. Delaney Winslow, a freshman theatre major said, “I’m terrified of death and not being a conscious being, the void, and life ultimately not mattering.”
Daniella Oyegbola, junior political science and communication studies major said, “You cannot escape death. Death is a part of life.”
Some students choose to ignore death and mortality completely. Thomas Lugo, a freshman journalism major said, “I don’t think about it (death). It’s not worth the stress.”
Samantha Todd can be reached at samantha.todd@student.shu.edu
Comments
