Aging in Place

Aging in Place: Don’t let the bloviators hold up progress

I am sure you have heard the saying “A camel is a horse designed by a committee.” That neatly sums up my opinion of the product committee work usually produces - a hodgepodge, consensus-driven outcome, which is rarely a “silver bullet.” I cannot count the number of committee meetings I have sat...

Aging in Place: Contraceptives and condoms, breaking taboo

Aw shucks, folks. I’ll bet you are as sick as I am of all the misery in the media. Let’s focus on something with a brighter, cheerier future. How about a male contraceptive pill? Wouldn’t that be greeted with great applause? “What?” You say? You don’t think men would be willing to mess around...

Aging in Place: Why not develop some sort of senior-corps?

I had a lovely brunch at the White House in Wilmington recently as one of six people at our table: four were age 90 or above and two were in their mid-80s. We were a raucous crowd and sat there for almost three hours. We had just as much fun as a six-top of 30-year-olds would have enjoyed. There...

Aging in Place: No one wants to be the middle child

Many decades ago, I was sitting in an aisle seat on an airplane waiting for it to take off and fly to Florida where I planned to visit my father. My seatmate, a 20-something male sporting a wild and bushy head of red hair, paused in the aisle next to me and proceeded to take off almost all of his...

Aging in Place: Aging is more comfortable with women friends

I have been telling my daughter regularly since she was born 55 years ago, “You must have women friends. You will not make it through life without them.” So, for once I have a positive story to tell you related to that advice.
Once upon a time, there were five women working together at a...

Aging in Place: Staying relevant while getting old, from gaining wisdom to wreaking havoc

Our old buddy Vladimir Putin turns 70 years old on October 7. I doubt that he is any different from men (and women) everywhere who see a very big birthday looming on the horizon and fret about “what have I accomplished and how much time do I have left before I become useless?” I have to ask...

Aging in Place: The motivations of the Uvalde murderer matter

I am stricken, unable to think about anything else but the death of all those children in Uvalde,TX. I cannot stand it, or shove it into some dark corner of my mind. How much rage must it take to look at the face of a little kid and shoot to kill, and then do it again 18 more times? It must be...

Aging in Place: "Reflections on a lifetime through a wider lense"

I am not at all embarrassed to find myself a walking (well, more like limping along) cliché of aging and senior thinking. It really is pretty exhilarating to be able to scan eight-plus decades and witness one’s own life with a wider lens. How many of us have ever seen ourselves clearly at any age...

Aging in Place: "Contemplations on the 'final move'"

A sizable percentage of my good friends are “movin’ on out,” leaving me behind and bereft. By far, they are refugees seeking the comfort of living near one or more of their children, usually in another state. It seems to be an age- or stage-of-life-related movement. Ten to 20 years ago, the same...

Aging in Place: "Violence, greed, ignorance and hypocrisy: Nothing new for mankind"

I bought a print of Skip Morrow’s that shows “God” dropping a goofy looking guy down into the midst of various animals. The title of the picture is “ON THE SIXTH DAY GOD MADE MAN,” and at the bottom it says “AND THERE WENT THE NEIGHBORHOOD.” I have it displayed on an easel in my sunroom where I...