How i went from 'getting old' to 'being old' Lifestyle preachers may talk about "70 being the new 50" by profiling some 85-year-old guy who swims a mile a day in Lake Michigan in the middle of January. Such inspirational epistles never impressed us though. Less so after my husband Stew underwent serious spinal surgery …
Tag: aging
On turning 70, gratefully
Sandwiched between Christmas and New Year's, my birthday on December 30 traditionally has been half-forgotten but not this year, when I will hit the big Seven-Oh. Birthdays that end in zero are usually met with anticipation; they mark a passage to a new stage in life. When we turn twenty, college graduation and the beginning of a career—even …
How near is your End?
For several days in November, after he turned seventy, Stew grew glum and picked up the annoying habit of starting sentences with "I've been thinking..." without ever getting to the predicate.Thinking about what exactly?Apparently Stew was bothered by visions of a Piper Cub flying overhead pulling a banner that said "The End is Near. Do …
Real friendships are forever
Sometimes we receive letters, or more likely emails nowadays, from which we instinctively turn away before we're done reading.Such was the email Stew and I received yesterday from Vickie, a dear friend for more than forty years, telling us she'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. That's a bad type of cancer, I thought initially, as …
Is that aging that I hear?
If during a romantic dinner your mature date keeps craning his neck over the table it may not mean he's trying to steal a kiss or ogling your chimichangas. It could be the old coot just can’t quite hear what you’re saying. Or if you’re a preacher at one of the expat temples in San …
The decline and demise of everybody
One of the oddest books I’ve read recently, or maybe ever, is Roz Chast’s “Can’t we talk about something more pleasant?”She’s a cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine and her book, illustrated with cartoons, handwritten text and a few photos, zigzags with hilarity and grimness through a reality no one wants to talk about: The …
Paging Dr. de León
Just as Florida gets ready to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Ponce de León's search for the Fountain of Youth—supposedly somewhere in the northern part of the state—out comes Smithsonian magazine in its June issue with an article saying the legend is baloney. In fact, according to a University of South Florida researcher, a political …
Mirror, mirror? Nah, never mind
Never been one for admiring myself on the mirror except perhaps for my thick, formerly dark brown mane, especially after most of my friends began losing theirs regardless of the color. Losing one's hair is a clear sign of creeping, or galloping, old age, one that makes you concentrate on the sink drain rather than …
Never too old to be happy
According to Mr. Conventional Wisdom, that notorious bullshit artist, happiness in life is an inexorable downward slide. We may be happy when young and carefree, when zits and sex are our main worries. Or perhaps during the 30s and 40s when we fall in love, buy a house and develop a career, and if we're …
El Rancho Santa Clara 