Throughout this blog, I have shared the idea that we can look at age
and aging as a conversation—it is what we say about ‘the way it is’
when we get older—and how we ‘observe’ it affects how we act and,
ultimately, how we experience our age. The power of viewing age as a
conversation is that it allows us to distinguish between our age and
how we relate to our age and the world. It allows us to create meaning,
purpose and possibility regardless of
Monthly Archives: January 2007
Conservative or Liberal
This has been a tougher-than-usual posting to write. I am not in any way agreeing with the President’s decision to send more troops to Iraq, nor am I attempting to silence the voice of those who oppose or disagree with his policies. I need to make it clear I am writing to my fellow Americans because George W Bush is our president and we live under our current Constitution. I am advocating that unless and until we can learn to embrace and align ourselves with our leaders within our system of
What Do Boomers Want?
I had lunch yesterday with a great friend of mine who is about my age and one of the ‘most alive’, talented and eclectic people I know. She is interested in everything and everyone and is as passionate about life as one can be. As a cancer survivor, she has been through a lot in terms of health challenges, yet is clear that she is not her body. She has never been more enthusiastic about her future and is an inspiration to all that know her.
We were talking about this blog site and my vision
Intergenerational Dialogue
If we had the means to promote an intergenerational dialogue, what would we talk about?
I think we’d first have to acknowledge that:
• Neither generation has a lock on truth AND
• Neither of us knows more than the other.
While we may have a bit more experience in some areas, younger people know a lot more in others. I learned from my son that he knows a lot more than I do about modern philosophy, about dealing with uncertainty and about participating in
Generations
We speak of ‘generations’ as if they are homogenous groupings of like-minded people who see the world in more or less the same way. I don’t know about this. I think there are as many intra-generational differences as there are inter-generational differences. I think that what may be distinct is how the young and the old differ in respect to time. The young have a lot more of it to look forward to than we do. The patterns of youthful enthusiasm, idealism and energy seem
Being a Grandparent
By Vincent DiBianca
Bio
Too
proud to be vulnerable, he wasn’t really "accessible". He never really
knew me or dialogued with me to any extent. He didn’t serve as a
confidant, guide or mentor. We never had a heart-to-heart conversation,
and I never felt particularly safe or connected with him. Maybe this
was just our family. Maybe it was the times. Or perhaps it was both.
I
can tell you that being a granddad in 2007 for me is a very different
experience. Okay, so
Age Management?
I recently saw a CBS 60 Minutes segment about aging. It
revealed, once again, how we view age as a physical state that we can
control with “anti-aging medicine”—as if various ‘fixes’ such as growth
hormones, plastic surgery, erection drugs and myriad vitamin therapies
will somehow put off the inevitable. I am not saying any of these
medical remedies are bad. In some cases, it is neat to be able to do
things at 80 that most 80-year-olds aren’t
Rearview Mirrors
We’ve all experienced the wisdom that comes with hindsight. It’s easy to have 20-20 vision after the fact, to achieve clarity and perspective on our lives and choices in retrospect. What is sometimes less obvious to us is how much of our day-to-day actions, behavior, moods and feelings are a function of the past.
As I grow older, I find myself appreciating how much of the way I see the world is shaped by my past. When you think about it, this implies that the older I get, the more past I have
Navigating Retirement
I think it’s wiser
to forget about whether we can retire or not based on what our working
status or financial situation may be. If you think you have to work,
then there is a natural tendency to moods of resignation,
disappointment and, sometimes, resentment. People get depressed
whenever they are trapped in a story that limits their self-expression
and turns them into victims of the circumstances. This could be
important to consider if you will continue
Retirement Mythology
We generally think of ‘retirement’ as the line dividing our ‘working
years’ from our ‘not working years’ (or at least, a time when we don’t have
to work for a living). I think retirement is a false distinction, one
that has taken on enormous importance in people’s lives and that can be
a fulcrum for either new possibilities and positive changes or profound
resignation and negative changes.
I think ‘retirement’ is a false distinction because ‘work’ is itself
a false