ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on thinking within the emerging field of narrative gerontology to consider how the developmental tasks of later life are in many ways narrative tasks. They concern how we make sense of, or read, the stories through which we have come to understand who we are. Put another way, they concern how we tackle the ‘philosophic homework’ that ageing may be said to assign us – homework which, despite the prevailing rhetoric about ‘successful ageing’, tends to go unacknowledged and unsupported, both among older adults themselves and within society at large. Building on insights into the value of ‘narrative care’ with older adults, the chapter will also discuss how ‘wisdom environments’ can be fostered that make such homework easier to undertake.
