By Jim Selman | Bio
New York is a consumer paradise. That’s one of the reasons it is a shopping mecca for so many people from around the world. Folks who can afford it want to have an apartment here, the ‘Big Brands’ want to have a store on 5th Avenue, and the rest of us want to look in the store windows and buy stuff. New York, of course, doesn’t have an exclusive on being a magnet for shoppers—most big cities have their own version of a street lined with designer stores overflowing
By Jim Selman | Bio
Over the course of my lifetime, I have heard many ‘bottom-line’ bits of wisdom. For example, “the key to happiness is loving what you do”. Or, “at the end of the day, you can either resist life or surrender and live life on life’s terms”. These kinds of nuggets are usually true and are certainly valid in a list of maxims and aphorisms for living. “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum is a great example of
By Jim Selman | Bio
My partner and I arrived in New York after a two-week ‘working vacation’ to Kiev and Barcelona. Our hotel is in mid-town and a great location for walking around in this great city. I am no stranger to the Big Apple and come often, but this was my partner’s first trip in over 25 years. By the time we got to the hotel, it was 2 a.m. European time. My normal plan would be to head straight for bed and sleep around the clock. Instead, we decided to take a stroll through Times
By Shae Hadden | Bio
I was in an interesting conversation recently about how we can interact with people who hold different beliefs than ours. The question posed was, “How can one be with someone whose beliefs are the antithesis of our own?” An important inquiry to engage in, considering that a clash of beliefs is at the heart of most conflict and strife between people.
Responses from the group varied from escape (“We can’t be with them at all, so we leave”) and avoidance (“We can’t
By Kevin Brown | Bio
Recently, I came across an article from the New York Times entitled "Invisible Immigrants, Old and Left With ‘Nobody to Talk To’", concerning elderly immigrants in the United States and the loneliness and isolation that many of them experience, especially those who speak little or no English.
The article references Mr. Devendra Singh, a
By Jim Selman | Bio
A good friend of mine is a Canadian that grew up in Lebanon. His family still owns a bit of land that is situated between two of the refugee camps. It is a bleak scene by all accounts. I asked him what he learned growing up in that kind of environment. He said, “I learned it only takes a very few people to screw it up for everybody”.I had the same impression as I watched the ‘9/12 tea party march on Washington’ this past week. It is fine for any group to demonstrate. That is their right. But I am also a bit perplexed why a campaign that has a few thousand people should be getting the same kind of coverage in the media that other ‘causes marches involving millions’ such as the civil rights movement receive. I am also perplexed that the media doesn’t make a distinction between hate-filled Nazi style
By Sharon Knoll | Bio
I think an essential part of literacy today is literacy with food growing. I was raised on farms and in urban gardens (although we didn’t have the word ‘urban’ at that time). Translated: Mom and Dad were raised in Kansas and settled in the big city of Denver after WWII. Our vacations consisted of driving to Kansas and helping bring in the harvest. I got to stay until the end of summer.During those summers, we just ate great food and I weeded a lot and helped Gram butcher chickens. The dirt was always great because my Dad or Granddad or Grandma were always throwing some kind of poop on something. Meanwhile, the cows were in the fields doing what they do best—eating and pooping. I got to understand very early on that ‘real’ dirt gives us great food.
Dirt is everything. One of my top ten heroes (I have a distinct list for heroines)
By Jim Selman | Bio
I am not an economist. Thank goodness. This is not a good time to be one. There is a wonderful overview of the field, “How Did Economists Get it So Wrong?”, by Paul Krugman in the New York Times. The bottom line is that the current situation “which nobody could have predicted” was predicted and it doesn’t take an economist to know that:
With all the theoretical back and forth between the various ‘schools’ of economic theory, one word jumps out at me: “technocrat”.
National Grandparents Day is this Sunday, September 13th. The day has been celebrated in the US since 1978 and Canada since 1995. Jimmy Carter signed the proclamation declaring the first Sunday after Labor Day as a U.S. holiday with a purpose: "… to honor grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to show
love for their children’s children, and to help children become aware
of strength, information, and guidance older people can offer." The founder of the
Starting this month, Serene Ambition will be adjusting our publishing schedule. Rather than posting five days a week, we will focus on connecting to other conversations, topics, issues and news of the day that are relevant to aging and Eldering as they occur. You can look forward to continuing to receive timely, informative perspectives from all of our regular contributors on a frequent basis.