All posts by Jim Selman

Health

Long-Term Commitments

By Rick Fullerton | Bio

On Thanksgiving weekend (the Canadian version that happens in early October), my wife and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with family and friends. Our children—now adults living on their own—arranged everything so all Phyllis and I had to do was arrive at the church hall at the appointed time. For those of you with younger families, there is hope!

In anticipation of this event, we pulled out photographs and other
mementos of our married lives together and recalled our earlier 25-year
milestone celebration. We learned that some of our memorabilia, as well
as an oil painting by our daughter, would be displayed at the
reception. We looked forward to being involved, yet also felt somewhat
out of the loop since others were doing all the preparations.

Phyllis
and I decided we would make our entrance to the festivities

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Wisdom in Action

Take Action: Register Your Complaints Online

Are you fed up with pre-recorded telemarketing messages, spam messages on your cell phone or junk faxes? You can report unsolicited messages, ads and billing issues with your phone service provider to the Federal Complaints Commission with this online complaint Form 1088. Just fill out the section that pertains to your type of complaint. If you provide enough information, the FCC can go over the perpetrators under the Communications Act of 1934.

Has your phone service been changed to another telephone

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Wisdom in Action

Father and Son

I was speaking about the future with my son recently over an obscenely large steak at an Argentinian restaurant in Mexico City. We’d just seen a real ‘shoot ’em up’ film which just happened to be called Shoot ’em Up. The hero, a kind of homeless James Bond, lives on the street, reminiscent of Lee Child’s character Jack Reach. They are both tougher than tough guys, the kind of character who make the bad guys feel bad that they ever met. Last night’s film was about 500 guys

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News

AARP Calls Congress to Act Responsibly

Congress is attempting to stop drastic cuts to payments to Medicare
physicians. If approved, the cuts could force more doctors to leave the
system, making it more difficult for older Americans to have access to
healthcare services. Instead of raising Medicare premiums, they are
looking at legislation passed by the House of Representatives that
would reduce excess payments to private insurance plans in Medicare. Full story

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Personal Empowerment

Time and Temporality

Lately I have been thinking about the future and the distinction between time and temporality. Our relationship to time can vary depending upon our culture and the era in which we are living. If I imagine living 300 or 400 years ago in what was primarily an agricultural ‘reality’, time was cyclical—we measured it in terms of seasons and lived in the certainty that life didn’t change much from one generation to the next. I can contrast that to today when time

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Personal Empowerment

Funk

I was having a cup of coffee with a very good friend of mine the other morning. He was feeling down—actually, he said he was feeling a little ‘crazy’. On one level, his life has never been better, his work is satisfying and, best of all, according to him, he has a new Porsche that is requiring he move to the next level of performance in driving. Life is good.

Yet, amidst all his success (which includes a loving, happy marriage and new grandkids), he was in a deep ‘funk’. I say funk because

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Wisdom in Action

Thanksgiving

A Happy Thanksgiving Day tribute to all our elder friends in Canada!  

Thanks for the Elders
You have made my life richer.
And you have made me see the world anew
By bringing your perspective to my life.
 
Grateful am I for every moment of your time,
Every sharing of your wisdom and experience,
Each intention clarified and held,
But more than these…I am honoured to ‘listen’
To who you are and what you stand for.

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Personal Empowerment

Participation

One of the concerns ‘older’ people share with us is how important it is to keep our health. Hypochondriacs aside, the majority of us still hear and believe that the older we get, the more difficult maintaining good health will be. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that if we lose our health, we lose most—or all—of our other options. I confess I am not a health expert: the latest developments in nutrition, dieting and exercise are not my key concerns. Yet I am healthy and, while I could

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Fearless Aging

Facts of Life

I saw a show on the BBC recently about aging in the UK. There were several very interesting aspects to the story. First, the population in nursing homes has changed dramatically in the past 20 years: previously, most residents were in their 70s and today most are in their 90s. And most are women—not surprising given World War II and life expectancy trends.

The consensus of experts here is that a combination of healthier habits and lifestyles, better medical technologies, and increasing access

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