I’m one of the “sad old feminists” referred to here by one of my fave writers, Gail Collins of the NY Times. [Read more…]
Sad Old Feminist
What Will the “Newspaper” of the Future Look Like?
My husband and I used to subscribe to our local paper, until our house was broken into on the first night after we ordered a vacation stop. (The paper carrier was later indicted for other thefts in the neighborhood). We bought a second laptop and now we sit together every morning reading our computers.
We can read whatever paper we want, for free. USAToday, our local, LATimes, NYTimes, anything on the planet. Free.
Also, while we’re reading, we can follow other links (if we read a compelling book review, we can click over to Amazon and order the book, then go back to the “paper”. If you read that a hurricane is raging, you can click on the video and watch it happen.)
But there’s a downside. While we’re viewing this for free, somebody is working to create these stories. That reporter must be paid. Any ideas? Because I feel kind of guilty. What do you think?
Baby Boomer Accepts Her Limitations
One day, I realized I was not a tractor.Some Boomers Can’t Handle Living in 55+ Community
That’s it, I’m moving, my friend says. Too many old people living here. Every time I turn around, there’s an ambulance. I can’t take it. It’s too depressing, she says. [Read more…]
Am I Really Middle-Aged at 56?
How can I make such a claim? Do I really expect to live to 112?
Let me explain. I’ve always felt that you can’t count the first 20 years. All you’re doing is maturing into adulthood. How can preschool count when you’re figuring out how old you are? 4th grade? The teen years? No, I only count the adult years, and by that measure I’m only 36. And except for my stiff back and aching hips when I get out of bed in the morning, I FEEL 36, in my mind
But here’s the most important thing: I think you’re middle-aged when you reach that golden ground between having raised your kids, and declining. So if you’re 85 and going strong, like my mom, learning new things all the time, curious, hungry still for self-mastery and knowledge, then you might never leave middle-age, according to my definition.
May we never leave middle-age.
Are Your Friends Bad For You (Part 2)
Earlier we talked about the importance of entering into friendships consciously. Now to another tough question: What if you were raised by negative people? How might that change you?
My folks, as loving and supportive as they tried to be, were fearful and insecure people. I was raised in an atmosphere where we anticipated things would go wrong. Friends would turn on you. Rich people weren’t to be trusted. Employers would toss you from your job in a heartbeat. Politicians were crooked. Other world powers would destroy the USA if they could.
Of course, there’s an element of truth in all of those fears, but we were raised to expect such things to happen, and it changed all of us kids, I am sure. For one thing, I wonder how much it contributed to my chronic anxiety. For another, I sometimes wonder if I’m addicted to drama, as much as I hate it. For a third, when something horrible happens in my world, there’s a tiny part of me that savors it, that wants to fire up the crack pipe of negativity and take a long, slow hit.
A friend of mine who was literally tortured as a child, says with confidence that those hardships made her who she is today. My reaction is: bullshit!! That’s just a rationalization to ease the pain and regret. Who might she have been today if she hadn’t been hurt mentally and physically by her family? What heights would she have scaled with her incredible artistic and musical talents?
Some of us are living our lives in a haze, unaware of our prejudices or the knee-jerk beliefs we adopt to insulate ourselves, subconsciously protective. So here’s the big question: Are you now the person that you were meant to be, or are you the person you were made to be?
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