Author Archives

• Pushing 60

  By 70-and-rising on July 29, 2010 • ( 0 )

  

  A recent article in the NY Times by Kate Zernike pointed out that ageism is painful sterotyping but references Dr. Butler (an advocate for successful aging) as cautioning “against embracing the opposite sterotype- the idea that aging successfully means that you have… Read More ›

• Youth Turns Seventy

  By 70-and-rising on July 13, 2010 • ( 0 )

  

  There was a short editorial in the New York Times last week noting Ringo’s jumping a decade. The writer made the statement (I’ll paraphrase) that it seemed to him as if youth, itself, has turned 70. I knew exactly what… Read More ›

• Foreign phrases

  By 70-and-rising on November 19, 2009 • ( 0 )

  

  Oftentimes it takes a non-English word or phrase to capture exactly what you want to say or how something or someone makes you feel.  The sixties is the time to pinpoint the emotion, the attitude, or the thought. Here are… Read More ›

• Nearer than you think

  By 70-and-rising on November 3, 2009 • ( 0 )

  Intimations of mortality are everywhere. The only antidote is to appreciate the everyday, the commonplace, the unexpected joyous moment. If you happen to be 60+ and you like poetry, the following poem will appeal. “Refusing at Fifty-Two to Write Sonnets”… Read More ›

• Contradictions

  By 70-and-rising on October 29, 2009 • ( 0 )

  

  A good friend of mine once said: After the age of 40, you don’t get to feel one way about anything. It rang true 20 years ago and it rings true today.  Ambivalence is a constant for people in their… Read More ›

• The world is never ready for the birth of a child

  By 70-and-rising on October 28, 2009 • ( 0 )

  

  The world seems a more dangerous place than ever before. Even a news junkie like me starts pressing the off button with each trumpeted description of personal, national or international tragedy, usually delivered by newscasters with a catch of excitement… Read More ›

• End of the quest for self

  By 70-and-rising on October 25, 2009 • ( 0 )

  

  Many years ago my friends and I talked endlessly about finding ourselves, about figuring out who we were.   Some pursued their Ph.D.s. Some harvested sugar cane in Cuba. Some explored life on a commune.  Some found  partners who could reflect a self… Read More ›

• To everything there is a season

  By 70-and-rising on October 23, 2009 • ( 0 )

  First it was the birthdays, then the bar mitzvahs, then the sweet sixteens, the engagement parties, the weddings, the baby namings, the children’s birthdays,  and weddings. Now it’s the retirements- forced and chosen. My friends and I echo Hamlet: To… Read More ›

• On the downslope- enjoying the ride?

  By 70-and-rising on October 20, 2009 • ( 0 )

  

  Judith Warner writes in her essay for the NY Times “I Feel It Coming Together”: This is the cruelty of middle age: just when things have gotten good-really, consistently good-I have become aware that they will end…. I now see… Read More ›

• Mary Travers: may her memory be a blessing

  By 70-and-rising on October 17, 2009 • ( 1 )

  

  Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary died at 72 a few weeks ago.  The group’s version of Forever Young has always seemed like a prayer or blessing to me, moreso as the decades pass.  This song/prayer is dedicated to Mary… Read More ›