Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother&#8217;s condo we go.</p><p>That is the route Charlie Brown and his pals took during the annual broadcast of their Thanksgiving special.</p><p>Charlie Brown&#8217;s creators were onto something: realizing that nostalgic views of a grandmother&#8217;s sweet little home for the holidays are not always grounded in reality. So Charlie&#8217;s granny moved to a more desirable space for her lifestyle, likely sans as many steps to climb, doorknobs her arthritic hands couldn&#8217;t turn, and extra rooms to keep clean.</p><p>Amazing, considering that the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving was produced in 1973. If there is an issue that will later define this generation, it is our growing numbers of elderly.</p><p>Note I didn&#8217;t write the &#8220;problem&#8221; of the aging population. That is the first mistake to be made, viewing more seniors as a burdensome demographic shift. But bear in mind, it will take more than loving sentiments and muffling family squabbles to keep from trekking down that path.</p><p>Virtually everything about how society today is structured &#8212; cars (not enough public transportation), highways (slow lanes for aging drivers are needed), homes (not built with the idea of people aging in them), health care (a severe lack of gerontology experts) &#8212; is nowhere near compatible to accommodating families and the coming &#8220;silver tsunami.&#8221;</p><p>So on Thanksgiving, with most people on their best behavior about the meaning of family, consider the future. If you are blessed, a few relatives of plus 65 years of age are seated around your Thanksgiving table.</p><p>Does grandmother or perhaps grandfather live alone? Are they driving? Who tends to their errands, traversing the minefield of being helpful, without parenting a parent who is quite capable of making her own decision? And what will the future be like for that caregiver in say 30 years, when he or she has spent productive work years caring for relatives, neglecting to earn and save money for their own senior years?</p><p>Kansas City is a leader in such considerations. Last year, the Center for Practical Bioethics here began a project to increase understanding about the growing numbers of elderly.</p><p>First, realize this is a global change, not just contained to the U.S. and its baby boomers. By 2017, the number of people globally under the age of 5 and those over the age of 65 will criss-cross. That means there will be more elderly people around than little ones. Extend the estimates 30 years forward from that tipping point &#8212;and the number of elderly compared to their younger cohorts will be double.</p><p>Never in the world&#8217;s history has this been true, according to John Carney, the bioethics center&#8217;s vice president for aging and end of life. Demographers note that people age 85 and above didn&#8217;t exist as a strong segment of the global population 50 years ago. And Europe is getting there first, where birthrates have been dropping for years.</p><p>The center has chosen five areas for concentration: housing, mobility, civic engagement, care giving and health service and technology.</p><p>Already, some interesting conversations have occurred. Like the session where a local homebuilder walked out, fed up with what he viewed as wasted time on an issue he understood all too well. Before he left, the man said he realized that a good 77 percent of homes are built for 23 percent of the population. But tax and business incentives are largely shaped to support suburban sprawl, so that is exactly where he was going to keep on building. He had a living to make, after all.</p><p>The episode illustrates the layers involved &#8212; from government to small business &#8212; with changing to adapt to more seniors.</p><p>Holiday season nostalgia for yesteryear is an annual pursuit. But families are not going to morph back to a day when people didn&#8217;t live as long, traveled less, rarely moved from the city where they were born, and ended life surrounded by large numbers of relatives.</p><p>So greet seniors today with the warmth and love their years have earned them. Then put a little thought to what must happen to really respect them.