Aging in Place

Aging in Place: For the dog’s sake, don’t scream, yell, and pound on the pillow

I once read somewhere that January is the armpit of the calendar year. That is certainly proving to be the case in 2025. Thank God it is over. I have been in a deep purple funk for weeks, unable to face the TV news or risk much outdoor activity on the icy surfaces.
I remember, back in...

Aging in Place: Would trade wisdom for better back, good vision

Think about all the things we never knew when we were in our teens, 20s, and even 30s. I look at my three wonderful grandchildren and am thunderstruck by how little life experience they have had, and yet when I was their age I actually got married and started having children! In retrospect, I...

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...