Mindy Green­stein and Jim­mie Hol­land show us that, con­trary to com­mon wis­dom, our sense of well – being increas­es with our age — often even in the pres­ence of ill­ness or dis­abil­i­ty. On a joint ven­ture between a fifty year old and an 85 year – old, Green­stein and Hol­land explore pos­i­tive psy­chol­o­gy con­cepts of char­ac­ter strengths and virtues to unveil how and why, through the course of a life­time, we learn who we are as we go. Draw­ing from the authors’ own per­son­al inter – gen­er­a­tional friend­ship as well as a broad array of research from many dif­fer­ent areas— includ­ing social psy­chol­o­gy, anthro­pol­o­gy, neu­ro­science, human­i­ties, psy­chi­a­try, and geron­tol­ogy—Lighter As We Go tells us how com­pas­sion, jus­tice, com­mu­ni­ty, and cul­ture can help us lead bet­ter lives as we grow older.