I was watching the CBS show “Sunday Morning” on the weekend and it had a segment on the dying art of conversation. The point was that with all our technology and almost real-time connections available with email, handhelds and social networking sites, people seem to have lost the ability to have conversations. It was a thought-provoking and, I think, mostly true observation about what is happening to us. The show also showcased a new book by Stephen Miller called
My Grandmother: The Artist
By Lauren Selman | Bio
I come from a family of artists. Both my mother and father are artists. My brother is an artist. My aunt is a performance artist. My uncle is a circus artist. My grandmother is an artist. My grandfather is a can artist. My great grandmother was an artist. My great-great grandmother was an artist. My great-great grandfather was an artist…and the list goes on.
Recently, I had the absolute pleasure of traveling back in time through the art of my grandmother. I had been
Moods
Moods are central to our lives. There isn’t a time when we are not in one mood or another. For most of us, our moods are organizing how we feel, what we do and how we explain just about everything to ourselves most of the time. For example, can you remember the last time you said, “I am happy” or “I am unhappy” without following the statement with “because”? No, we always have a story for why we are in whatever mood we’re in—whether it is a good one or a bad one.
I often ask
Intergenerational Friendships
"When you find the right person, age doesn’t matter."
Intergenerational relationships are not a thing of the past. They are actually alive and well in North America. There is good coverage of the many people who work and volunteer helping seniors. However, reports like this one out of Tennessee show that women developing friendships across generations
Depression and Justice
By Stu Whitley | Bio
I
had my own struggle with depression, brought about by a confluence of
events that seemed overwhelming. In spite of my rational training and
experience as a lawyer, I was completely disabled by my loss of
perspective. I could not see beyond the shadows of perceived (and real)
threats. A feeling of being trapped is the best way to describe the
sense of hopelessness and abandonment I was experiencing.
Fear
inspires the ‘fight or flight’ response, as we all know. But
Getting a Return
I have been thinking a bit about ‘returns’ lately. I read a blog about ‘return on energy’ that pointed to the growing awareness of our choices and what is at stake when we make them as we age. Are we getting more out of life than we’re putting in? This kind of ‘capitalist’ metaphor got me thinking. Is life a transaction in which we need to measure the return as a basis for assessing our ‘life worth’?
I am a capitalist insofar as I believe in free enterprise. I don’t know
Wake-Up Call to Spontaneous Giving
By Rick Fullerton | Bio
I’m in love (or at least infatuated) with an amazing young woman.
She is in her 20s, about the same age as my youngest daughter. I just
met her last Friday, and we are having lunch this week. Let me explain
how this unfolded and why it is so exciting!
For several years,
I have been an adjunct professor in the faculty of management at a
local university, where I teach graduate courses in human resources and
management skills. This work is very rewarding,
Global Warning
Nope, the name of this post is not a misspelling. I mean warning! I wonder…when does a ignoring a dire warning become denial? When does someone hearing, “You are drinking too much” become an alcoholic? As someone who has had my fair share of after work drinking and after dinner toasts, I can tell you that you never know you are in denial when you are in denial. If enough people suggest there may be a problem, then the only way to know if there is a problem is to assume they are right. If
Does Getting Older Mean Getting Wiser?
By Lauren Selman | Bio
I
recently watched one of my favorite shows, "Sex in the City." This show
features four protagonists that constantly prove that 30 is the new 20
and uncovers their relationships in the city of New York. In this
particular episode, the older women were poignantly juxtaposed against
young starlettes to emphasis they’re "getting older". The plot
circulated around the question about aging that Carrie posed at the
Do You Really Want to Know?
The latest breakthroughs in genome technology will now be available to consumers, allowing them to trace their past in order to predict their future. Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, is launching 23andme today. The
web-based service, partially funded by Google, has set out to revolutionize how
we look at ourselves in reference to the past, present and future. For $999, consumers will get a complete DNA scan that reveals