Steve Lopez: What 'Barbie' teaches us about the beauty of growing old

I was 5 ½ when Barbie was born. I didn't take much notice at the time — or ever — and hadn't intended to catch the new movie starring the plastic princess.

But I got curious the other day when, in the middle of a Sacramento hearing on aging, Little Hoover Commission chairman Pedro Nava mentioned the summer box office sensation.

The commission — an independent state oversight agency that checks up on how our tax dollars are spent — was asking questions of public officials and others to see if enough progress is being made on a 10-year-long project called the Master Plan for Aging.

Nava, commenting on the daunting challenge of recruiting a big enough workforce to care for