Do I WANT to live to be 100?

Probably not, but a new article in the New York Times by Jane Brody emphasizes the benefits of walking. My favorite line in the article is when one practioner bemoans the fact that he tries to get his patients to walk and there's such resistence. "We're not prescribing chemotherapy, for pete's sake! It's WALKING!"

I am lucky to be in a walking group at work. It's important on a variety of levels but of course the first benefit is that it's a group of people encouraging you to go, even when work is piling up on your desk.

Here's the article http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/health/26brody.html?src=me&ref=general

So now we're never going to stop working.....?

You know, we Baby Boomers thought we had this whole "aging" thing down pat. We were going to control the world, make everyone else do our bidding and laugh our way to the grave.

Now it turns out that society is starting to fight back. They don't want to take care of a bunch of indolent former hippies. So they're starting to write little subversive articles about how we'd better keep working or our brains will turn to mush....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/science/12retire.html?src=me&ref=general

This is NOT FAIR! Why can everyone else retire and we can't? Just because we're going to cost the society their entire nest-egg? Too bad. We EARNED IT! I've got a deck chair all picked out where I can snap my fingers at the staff and say "Hey, you there...another pina colada!" (Except I don't like coconut so it will have to be a rum punch.) And what do you mean the rum punch is going to help my brain atrophy. Doesn't anyone here have a sense of humor?

I've either been in school, been working, been taking care of tiny children or been working, working, working my whole life. When does the merry go round stop? When do I get my lifetime supply of cotton candy?

And we are going to make massage therapy one of the preventive benefits of Medicare, right?

I'M BAAAACK.....

The last time I posted to this blog was on the first day of this year...I won't exactly tell you where I've been since then. Suffice it to say that I almost ran for State Representative and then didn't, almost got a couple of jobs out of town and then didn't, and spent an awful lot of time on Cape Cod licking my wounds and soothing my soul.

So what inspires me to start writing all of a sudden? Because I have decided that really, when you come down to it, I am an expert on "healthy aging" or maybe an incipient expert. But in any case I have decided that that is where I am going to put my energies for the next period of time. This may be a month, a year, a decade. After all there are rumors around that if I had been born in the 80's I would have been diagnosed with ADHD...but it's my blog and I'll laugh or cry if I want to.

So, in the category of healthy aging, there is TODAY'S accomplishment, and the place that I've been all this year. Today I "ran" a 5K. Now, the quotes are there because I covered 5K in geography. Sometimes I was running. Most of the time I was not. But I was moving the whole time...I didn't stop....and I finished, albeit 50 minutes later, but they didn't have to send the ambulance for me. As I passed all the "spotters" I told them "you can go home now...I'm the last person."

What this has encouraged me to do is:

1. Try to make my time under 40 minutes next year (or maybe the year after that...)
2. Start a "senior" or "Masters" division for the "Fun Run" (the "race" I was in...for me it wasn't a race it was an endurance contest!)next year and encourage other semi-out-of-shape over S*x*y's to join me...
3. Perhaps see this blog or some of my professional goals as becoming an expert on "Healthy Aging."

Trust me, it's where life is going...

I looked back at the post I did on the first day of this calendar year. I vowed to:


1. Hug my granddaughters
2. Visualize whirled peas
3. Eliminate teeth-grinding and other outward manifestations of stress
4. Be thankful for what I have (no materially but spiritually and emotionally...)
5. Be careful what I wish for
6. Stay hopeful
7. Love my family and friends
8. Try to make the world a better place
9. Keep checking things off on my "I've always wanted to...." list
10. Keep moving

So OK, I've started at the bottom and I will work my way up. Peace....

Where DID that Decade go? I knew I put it somewhere.....

By this time, I am used to the passage of time and coping with the mental picture of the calendar pages flipping and the years rolling past at the speed of light.

But there was something about it being the beginning of a new DECADE (I am NOT going to get into an argument about whether the century began in 2000 or 2001 and whether this decade should begin next year....)that brought me up short.

Because I could have sworn we just celebrated the millenium.....

Remember that? In my case I was with five of my closest friends and we rang things in with a bang. I had just turned 50 and discovered that it was the best stage I'd ever been in. My daughter was in college, my son in law school and life was good. I started a new job on January 13, 2000. I still have the same job. Is that progress?

So I could deal with the idea of a new year. But then all the commentators stated talking about the DECADE. What do you mean, it was just yesterday.....and then I realized that both kids were now married, I had grandchildren and my Uncle Bob had died. The world had changed profoundly. I hadn't kept up with technology and now I was....well, s*x*y. And still lots to look forward to.

In her usual timely way, my sister-in-law Hilary sent me this post of the last column that Ellen Goodman, one of my favorites, penned. It seems to sum it up pretty well. Peace.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/letting_go_20091231/

Reflections of ....the way life used to be.....

This past weekend we attended an engagement party for our friends Rebecca and Brent. It was great for us, especially, because it looked like a PTA reunion of parents from the '80's. All my daughter's friends' parents were there and it was lovely.

So this of course obviously led to a discussion of what it's like to be a certain age. (Rebecca's dad turned s*x*y on November 29th....) My friend Erica opined that it was like a Renaissance. You could embark on a variety of new paths in life and experience them in the fullness of time. Which of course provoked Mort to say that, to have a Renaissance, you have to go through the Dark Ages. After death there is resurrection and all that.

Well, that's true. For me, my 40's were the dark ages. But what is also true is that to truly embrace being 60, one has to acknowledge the "death" of certain things that simply are not going to happen. I am not going to be the first female Supreme Court justice (one of my early goals.) Not only have we had three, but I never did go to law school so it's a nonstarter. I also never did start my project of hiking the Appalachian Trail in segments. It's not that I COULDNT not start this project, but having hosted through-hikers this summer, I think it's a project best left to the young. I am content to hear their trail stories.....

So having said all that, we wish our friend Ellen a very happy 60th birthday tomorrow. Ellen is best known in some circles for two things: inventing the concept of "martyr points" as in "I have enough martyr points for a washer-dryer combination" and washing strawberries VERY THOROUGHLY in college (which necessitated rinsing them even MORE THOROUGHLY). Since that time she has distinguished herself in fields of endeavor too numerous to count.

For my part, I have decided that this decade will be dedicated to fomenting revolution in unlikely places and enjoying being part of the background of history....

Well, I DID IT!

Yep. For real. Not practice anymore.

I am officially s*x*y.

So what, do you ask, does it FEEL like?

GOOD!

Because my new hobby is looking at other people who are around my age and realizing that I stack up pretty well. Not in the "beautiful" category but in the "gee, you sure don't LOOK s*x*y!" category.

One reason it is feeling pretty good is that my four children (two biological, other two married to the two biological) gave me a SMASHING bday party! Most of the people in the room had known me at least half my life. And they still showed up!

Now that (optimistically) I'm two-thirds of the way to the finish line of life, what do I plan to do with the next 30 years?

1. Hug my granddaughters
2. Visualize whirled peas
3. Eliminate teeth-grinding and other outward manifestations of stress
4. Be thankful for what I have (no materially but spiritually and emotionally...)
5. Be careful what I wish for
6. Stay hopeful
7. Love my family and friends
8. Try to make the world a better place
9. Keep checking things off on my "I've always wanted to...." list
10. Keep moving

We'll check back on this list from time to time. No promises.

OK, OK, OK (and I apologize if I've used this title before.....

My "constant reader" SEB has pointed out to me that it's been almost two months since I've posted to this blog.

I suppose one could say "there are reasons for that."

a. Once the autumnal equinox hits, you really don't want to have much to do with me...
b. "Open enrollment" for Medicare D ramps up about October 1st. How would YOU like to be 103 messages behind at work?
c. How many ways are there to rhyme "f*cking lazy....."

Anyhow here I am and especially given the fact that I'm NOT QUITE 60, you'll have to forgive me.

So, hot off the presses:

1. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (again....)

OK, so he forgot he was in Michigan instead of Ohio. Have you ever BEEN to Michigan or Ohio? Add in Indiana and they all look alike. Except for the Terminal Tower in Cleveland there are no "landmarks" to give you a sense of place. And he's 60 years old for gosh sakes. We should be glad he's still standing.....

2. JUMPING UP AND DOWN!

Did you hear that one of the BEST THINGS YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR BONES is jumping up and down? Who knew? Forget all that weight lifting and swimming. Get a jump rope or better yet (in these recessionary times) just stand in place and JUMP UP AND DOWN! (Probably not wise on an empty stomach or full bladder, however. We are, after all, over 60....)

3. MEALS ON WHEELS!!!

I received my very first "senior" meal on wheel today. It is a tradition in my agency that when someone turns 60 (which officially makes one an "elder" under the Older Americans Act of 1965) the staff brings you a "home-delivered meal." We will talk about congregate meals in future posts but trust me, the best deal going is the manicotti in Berkshire County.....

4. MAMMOGRAMS

I'm not sure I agree with this new decision giving women between 40 and 50 a pass on mammography. I personally had a benign cyst removed at age 37.5. I have always been glad that I had an early baseline mammogram. If the healthcare system can't handle it, the heck with them!

5. AND I'M SURE YOU WON'T AGREE WITH ME.....

but as upset as I am about the abortion restrictions in the healthcare reform bill, I think we NEED TO PASS HEALTHCARE REFORM and then fix it later.....the devil is in the details and the perfect is the enemy of the good and I'm sure I could think up more cliches if it weren't so late.....

And so it goes.....

peace