Horizontal Heirlooms
Whenever I watch “Antiques Roadshow” I am struck by how many people have lots of things that “have been in the family” for generations. That phrase suggests longstanding roots and lovingly transported trunks that are not part of my history; my grandparents and my father were immigrants – the steerage kind – and couldn’t have […]
One more taboo
In 1984, when my brother came down with the mysterious disease that came to be called AIDS, the diagnosis was a death sentence; today it is a disconcerting and traumatic, but not fatal, surprise. Thanks to a miraculous cocktail of medications, countless Americans are living with the disease with few symptoms and tolerable side effects. […]
What’s Next?
The further I get into this transition to the rest of my life, the more I understand how it is a process not a “giant step” from one state to another. Experiences that seemed daunting when I started – like making peace with my waist-loss – are now in the past, but new challenges that […]
Growing up together
We refer to childhood friends as “people we grew up with.” The phrase conjures kids coming over after school, giggling in my room, raiding our refrigerator, endorsing my annoyance with my little brother, knowing my parents in their prime. There is a special intimacy about that shared history, and whenever I run unto Someone I […]
S-E-X
Because I am working on a new book about the unprecedented stage of new life that women are discovering, I have an excuse to indulge in my favorite pastime: talking to women. And because our conversations get real pretty fast – even if we’ve only just met – I have heard a lot about sex […]
I’ve finally hit a birthday I don’t want to admit to
When Gloria Steinem famously proclaimed “This is what forty” – and then fifty, sixty, and now seventy – “looks like!” I totally endorsed her message: if each of us stops trying to hide our years, we will liberate each benchmark for all of us. And in all my writing about women’s Second Adulthood I have […]
Who cares?
I have just finished screening purposals for the Purpose Prize, a cash award to be given by the terrific organization called Civic Ventures that promotes civic engagement on the part of people over fifty. The entries I saw were all impressive and I wish they all could win, but what really struck me was the […]
Some juicy statistics and studies
Like most of you I am sure, I keep a file of juicy tidbits and quotes picked up from random reading. I especially love it when I find something that confirms what we know, but can’t prove about ourselves. Here are some recent favorites: The increasing use of both sides of the brain for cognitive […]
The Sandwich Generation Squeeze
I’ve been traveling again – and talking to more women about what’s on our minds. The theme that has emerged recently is “The Sandwich Generation” stresses. It is a condition of our parents living longer that makes it likely that we will have, according to some estimates, as many years of parent care ahead of […]
The Revenge Study
Recently a very interesting scientific study appeared – about how men and women differ in the degree of pleasure they get from revenge. But what was really startling about the published paper was the conclusion pronounced by the study’s lead scientist. First let me tell you about the study. Scientists monitored the brain activity of […]