Lives of Timeless Purpose
Two Doctors, AU Professor Among Older Americans Honored for Changing Society

By Sue Anne Pressley Montes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 5, 2006; B01

Marilyn Gaston, a physician, and Gayle Porter, a clinical psychologist, are friends with a mission: They want other African American women in midlife to become more self-centered.

"As women, we're the caretakers. We have a 'C' gene, a caretaker gene," said Gaston, a former U.S. assistant surgeon general who lives in Potomac. "Our mothers and our grandmothers taught us to take care of everybody else first. . . . But if we take care of ourselves first, then we can take care of whoever we want to take care of."

Three years ago, Gaston and Porter began spreading that philosophy through their "Prime Time Sister Circles," groups for women 40 to 70 that explore the link between physical health and emotional and mental well-being. Now their efforts have received a new $100,000 national award that applauds social innovators older than 60.

The Purpose Prize is aimed at retirement-age Americans who use their wisdom and experience to change society. The five $100,000 prizes were awarded today by Civic Ventures, a nonprofit think tank in San Francisco that champions the contributions of aging baby boomers.

"There has been much celebration of what young people can do," said Marc Freedman, the organization's founder and president. "Over the years, there has been a steady stream of examples of people drawing on life experience to tackle some of the biggest problems of society, and yet there has been very little attention to the work of these older social entrepreneurs."

Akbar Ahmed, a professor of Islamic studies at American University, and Judea Pearl, a University of California at Los Angeles computer science professor who is the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, shared a Purpose Prize for their series of dialogues to promote understanding of Judaism and Islam.

"In the Muslim world, a lot of Muslims think that America is on a warpath against Islam. So imagine how they will feel when they hear a Muslim has been so honored," said Ahmed, 63, a former Pakistani government official.

About 1,500 people and groups applied for the prizes, which will be awarded annually, Freedman said.

Like the other recipients, Gaston, 67, and Porter, 60, intend to use their prize money to expand their project, funded in the past with grants from the Ford Foundation and the University of Maryland. Friends for nearly 30 years, they first began to take a frank look at aging about 10 years ago, when both were featured on a Black Entertainment Television program on the subject with actress Pam Grier.

"We were saying, We really are in prime time, the prime of our lives," Gaston said.

Their comments drew a deluge of telephone calls and led to a 2001 book, "Prime Time: The African-American Woman's Complete Guide to Midlife Health and Wellness," which gave birth to the "Prime Time Sister Circles." The small groups of 10 to 15 women participating in the D.C. area, Chicago and Florida meet once a week for 14 weeks to hear experts advise them for free on stress management, spirituality, nutrition, exercise, and "anger and attitude." Each woman develops an individualized plan for "the lifestyle changes" she needs.

Gaston and Porter said they feel a sense of urgency. "The bottom line of why we are so passionate about this is that black women are dying at higher rates than any other groups in the nation from heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes," Gaston said. "The main message is: Most of these deaths are preventable, and a lot of it is prevented if we can change the way we live our lives."

Porter said she understands the cultural habits that have to be overcome. " 'Soul Food' is a movie that has become legendary in our community," she said. "But what people forget is that the mama dies from diabetes. And then the whole family sits around at the end of the movie sharing a food orgy. We have a nutritionist who says, 'Look, Sisters, we've got to make some changes, or we're going to kill ourselves.' "

Follow-up surveys have shown that a large majority of the participants maintain the improvements they have made months later, Porter said.

Most women know what they have to change, the doctors said. They just need someone to help them take the first step.

"We tell them, 'If somebody said to you, You could extend your mother's life, your child's life, your husband's life, you could cut their chances of heart disease in half, by just walking a half-hour a day,' there's not one woman who wouldn't find that half-hour," Porter said. "So then the question is: If you can find it for your mama and all your loved ones, why can't you find it for yourself?"

© 2006 The Washington Post Company