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Jerry Elrod - EzineArticles.com Expert Author
Jerry is a native of East Texas and retired United Methodist Clergyman. He served churches in Texas, Nebraska and Arizona, including administrative appointments in Inner City Ministry and as the Omaha District Superintendent. He lives with his wife of 33 years in Texas and Arizona; their daughter lives in Arizona and their son, in San Francisco.
[View Jerry Elrod's Extended Author Bio]
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- Retirement - When Should I Downsize?
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Choosing to downsize is no small undertaking. Trying to sort out why you should, how to go about it, what will be at stake all play into the equation. Clearly, it is a time consuming, emotionally wrenching, labor intensive process. Somehow, someday it has to be done. But, when?
- Prostate Cancer - What it Taught Me
[Cancer:Prostate-Cancer] Good health was always assumed. In childhood, aside from the normal illnesses that accompany growing up, my health was generally quite good. Until my third decade there were no surgeries, no significant set backs. In my early 30's I had my first of three corneal transplants. Beyond that no other major health issues came along, other than a couple of sinus surgeries. The real shocker came when I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, with a Gleason Scale of 9.
- Retirement - Another Look at Communal Living
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Communal living for senior citizens is getting increased attention in the media. It is, at least part time, a second home option for many retirees. Some considerations are raised here that may be helpful to those considering such a living arrangement:
- Retirement - A Chance to Make Today Better Than Yesterday
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Predictability and routine are favorite haunts of seniors. Settling in to the familiar seems to offer a sense of security and serenity. Some predictability and routine is good and healthy. Too much can be enormously boring, and can contribute to ill health and stagnation. How does one achieve balance between being driven into hyperactivity and do-nothingness?
- Retirement - A Time For Lovability
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Retirement is a time to focus on hobbies enjoyed and developing new ones. One that may not be given much thought is working on your lovability. Know anyone who could invest time, thought and worthwhile enterprise to do just that? How about that person staring back from the mirror every morning?
- Retirement - A Time to Find Inspiration
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Now, especially, it seems more and more of us are engaged in the search for inspiration in our retirement years. How impressive it is, in otherwise depressing times, to see so many forms of inspiration taking shape. How, profoundly gracious of people to create it and pass it along. How utterly remarkable that with all the downers available via so many sources, there are those out there, looking under huge boulders to find hidden sprouts shooting up from the earth, at the very edges of what weighs us down, only to find one single, isolated bloom, searching for the sky.
- Retirement Pain - When a Heartache Won't Heal
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] The Senior Years and adolescence have something in common: they both seem to be the period in life when heartaches and heartbreaks take forever to cure. The intensity of emotion is so paramount that feelings seem to soar and then plunge with equal rapidity. Often, it seems the cause is never clear. Just as uncertain is the cure. In those days, it feels as if the pain will never subside. Dark clouds loom. Day to day life is met with depression and hurt and unanswered questions.
- Adjusting to Aging - Why Didn't Somebody Tell Me?
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] There are so many adjustments in aging that, as it happens, we seem always to be surprised with the next one. Our despair is we wonder why someone didn't warn us. Why didn't someone, anyone, give us a hint of what was ahead? Of course, they did. Of course, we didn't listen or assumed it just didn't apply to us.
- A Retirement Experiment - Is Communal Living For You?
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Two couples in retirement, both senior citizens, began an experiment recently. One couple is from near Chicago, the other from near Dallas. They converged in the Scottsdale area, and began sharing a domicile which met their mutual needs. They are part time residents in their respective locations, thus enabling a two home convenience in various seasons. One might wonder why in the world would anyone want to consider such an arrangement. What are the considerations?
- Imaginations Boundless Wonders - Therapy For Aging
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Many senior citizens look for remedies and therapies to retain youthful vigor. There is one that seems to be overlooked by many who offer suggestions for staying young. Remember when you were growing up and your imagination seemed boundless? Remember creating all sorts of fantasies that led to adventures and landscapes full of wonder. Remember discovering, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, new games, dramas, worlds that led you on trails of amazing and unusual adventure. Your imagination was the source.
- Kindness - Never Grow Tired of Trying
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Sometimes when it seems you haven't heard from someone you love and hold dear, it is a right and worthy thing to never grow tired of trying to reach out to them. None of us can second guess what is going on in another person's life, even though some of us senior citizens think we have most of life's answers. None of us can fathom the whys that may not be available to you, when you wish they were. None can know what agendas and pressures and hurdles they may be experiencing. None of us can supply for them the answers they may be seeking right then. But, any of us can try to be in touch, to reach out, to offer a kind and loving hand.
- Problems of Aging - Anxiety, Anger and Apathy
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Three of the big time injuries often self inflicted, particularly among the aging, are anxiety, anger and apathy. To be sure there are contrasts in these states of mind, but also clearly they are loaded with such inordinately negative ammunition to be killers. Each of these emotions work negatively on the heart, body, soul and spirit. They go further for they alienate perfectly good and well meaning friends from the stable of those who are best equipped to offer you solace when you need it.
- Retirement - Learning What to Forget and What to Remember
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Retirement is a time for all senior citizens to learn what is important to remember. So you have misplaced your nail trimmer? Just forget it! Some things are just not worth the time, fret or energy to try to find. Now, if you have lost your wallet or car keys or eye glasses or cell phone, these come under the head of a different horse. Separating the sufficiently important from the inefficiently unimportant is one of life's best lessons. We often choose to major in minors, thus derailing ourselves from the main track whose destination is our primary goal to begin with. Going off on tangents serves nothing more than a brief fantasy excursion which is likely not a tourist route anyway.
- How Much Have You Changed? A Dilemma For Senior Citizens
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Now that you are 50 or 60 or 70 or so, how much have you changed? As a senior citizen in retirement, do you still see yourself as you were 10 or more years ago? What experiences, dramatic or subtle, have changed the mold you always saw yourself fitting?
- Retirement - A Time to Check Your Vocabulary
[Writing-and-Speaking] How many words have you removed from your vocabulary since retirement? How many insulting, racist, bigoted, ignorant, inappropriate words have you chosen to delete from your conversation, thought, and interaction with others? Senior citizens especially need to go through this ritual because we lived through times when we were oblivious to the implications of such verbiage.
- What Gift Do You Bring?
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Of the several million now who have been overcome by the amazing talent of Susan Boyle, many senior citizens wonder, with daily frequency, what gifts are out there yet to be uncovered? Retirement offers us the luxury of pondering such questions.
- Wherever You Are, Good Health is Available
[Health-and-Fitness] New York and San Francisco are dynamite cities, as are many metropolitan areas around the planet. Such examples offer much to the senior citizen traveler. Traveling is one of the delightful perks of retirement, and one that many seniors enjoy to the fullest. The truth is that travel is wondrous therapy. It distracts us from the day to day anxieties which we could just as well find ways to avoid at home.
- Keeping Young After 70
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Sometimes, because of circumstances beyond our control, it is difficult to maintain the stamina to keep and feel young at and beyond 70. Some, whose personal disciplines have been positive, usually keep the frame in shape, the appearance relatively attractive, the heart pumping nicely and the trips to a physician few. Those are the ones we would like to emulate.
- Change Works, Even at 70
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] This article is the second of a series on change behaviors for senior citizens. In retirement, seniors have time for luxuries not available during the career phase of one's life. One of those luxuries is looking at changing a behavior, or several or even a lifestyle. Bad habits can be surrendered. Good habits can be adopted. Body, mind, and attitude can undergo a huge difference. How many days to go? A lifetime.
- Reshaping Self-Image at 70
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] How aging slips up on you and surprises you with its illusions and tricks and blind curves. When did you get the idea that you had reached your level of comfortable maturity? Was it in your 30's, or 40's or 60's or not yet? The question might be better asked: "when did you reach your first level of comfortable maturity?" Follow that with, and how long did it last? These are questions all senior citizens face both before and after retirement.
- Retirement - Adjusting to the Loss of a Spouse
[Home-and-Family:Death-Dying] Among the most difficult of experiences for anyone, particularly senior citizens, is dealing with the death of a spouse. Relationships created by longevity, mellowed by love, deepened by experience, affirmed through familiarity are virtually irreplaceable. Of course we all know of persons who in their second marriage or so are blissfully happy. Such experiences are to be applauded and appreciated. But, dealing with the loss of a lifetime spouse, in the neighborhood of 40 or more years, is an enormously difficult life experience.
- Prostate Cancer - Effective Strategies For Dealing With It
[Cancer:Prostate-Cancer] The senior citizen fraternity of men who have or will have prostate cancer can be encouraged to know that there are options available for dealing with it. Early detection is extremely important to treatment and cure. There is no substitute for getting your PSA checked annually, or more often if you are at risk. Once diagnosed, wise choices about the oncologist you choose, the method for addressing the cancer, and following medical advice meticulously are all essential.
- Retirement - A Time to Congratulate the Charitable
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] For those of us senior citizens who emerged out of the 50s, a sure sign that things are going south is that Playboy will not sponsor an All America Weekend, tied to sports, certainly including football. Simultaneously, Mr. Hefner has a mansion on the market, listed for around $26 million. Retirement has a lot to offer, and a singular item in the 'aging' list is time for reflection.
- Retirement - A Good Time For Caring
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Why do you care? Retirement is a time to invest energy and affection in many people whose lives have become important to your own. Senior Citizens care about the health and welfare of family and friends. Aging is a time to look at why you care about others.
- A Retirement Quest - The Never-Ending Search For Peace
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Seeking peace in retirement will not bring the seeker to a final destination, unless you count death. Peace is often elusive, particularly if life seems beset with stresses, pain, brokenness and alienation.
- Retirement - Mustering the Courage to Write
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] The world opens up for many senior citizens when they choose to retire. One of the daily activities for some is writing. The discipline of daily writing is not unlike any other routine. It must come first, it must contain some element of inspiration, at least for the writer, it needs to be somewhat timely, or, at least, humorous, informative, inspirational or contain something which pulls the readers' eyes
- Footprints and Open Minds - Are God and the Big-Bang Theory Mutually Exclusive?
[News-and-Society:Religion] That discovery of a million and a half year old footprint has turned a lot of assumptions on their proverbial head, questioning for some whether there has ever been anything inside the head? For the creationists and others who still insist that mankind came along only 5000 years ago, this has to shake their resolve. Well, maybe at least a little?
- Retirement - What's Next For Traveling Seniors?
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Naivete is one of our most wonderful satisfactions. It allows those of us in retirement to go blithely about our way without anticipating consequences. It gives us the chance to close our eyes, or at least wink at some of the barricades that create roadblocks along the way.
- Retirement - How Much Do You Love Your Kids?
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Retirement offers many options when it comes to dealing with your offspring. Assuming you have kids (and most senior citizens do), whatever their age, how much do you love them? How do you demonstrate care, affection, sensitivity to their needs?
- Retirement - Green Ideas For Gray Hairs
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] The roar from the naysayers seems to have died down. More and more senior citizens across the world, notwithstanding the holdout by the U.S. over the last 8 years, are turning to an enhanced awareness of Going Green. It's about time. A lifespan of 50 or more years should result in some cause and effect conclusions.
- Retirement - Change is Like a Four Letter Word
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Morning routines help set up the day for senior citizens. We start with either radical enthusiasm or slowly and deliberately as we examine the day and the body we bring to it. If you are a consumer of news via newspapers left on your front porch, the internet, or television cable, your day may need more inspiration because of all the information.
- Retirement - A Good Time to Discover What You Don't Need
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] The economic downturn isn't the only reason that senior citizens in retirement find the list of former necessities has been radically altered. What once was a "must have" has no appeal any longer. The desire to stroll through a mall, just to browse and be tempted is a much less frequent exercise.
- Retirement - A Time For Achieving Marital Harmony and How to Get There
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] A wonderful Sampler hanging on walls of many retirees implies important advice for the aging. It is a picture of senior citizens in their rocking chairs, he is smoking his pipe, she is knitting. The embroidered caption reads: "Retirement, Half as Much Money, Twice as Much Husband." Retirees often complain that the worst part of retirement is having so much time with your spouse.
- Death is Not My Next Goal - More Advice For Senior Citizens
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Aging is a phenomenon which introduces all kinds of subjects and issues we would rather leave alone. Many senior citizens (and others) are timid and reluctant to broach the subject of death, being ready for it, making necessary practical plans and decisions and even admitting to its very likelihood.
- Incremental Retirement - Sensible Advice For Senior Citizens
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Many senior citizens just won't retire. They are ambitiously alive. They stay busy. They love what they do. They are not putting off retirement because of economic issues. They either own their business or are in a situation in which their business gives them so much permission that the business can do quite well without them.
- Retirement Advice - Find Money in the Middle of a Recession
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Senior Citizens, and those not in retirement, are in search of extra money these days. There seems to be a dearth of opportunities for finding it. But there are some hidden pockets from which one can extract a few shekels. Here are some practical suggestions:
- Spend Time Musing - Suggestions For Senior Citizen Contemplation
[Self-Improvement:Inspirational] One of the big time blessings of aging is having time to think. Senior citizens indulging in thought is one of the luxuries that has too many enemies. We are bidden by the distractions and temptations which discourage genuine, quiet, and worthwhile contemplation.
- What to Do When - Etiquette Suggestions For Senior Citizens
[Home-and-Family] Many senior citizens know that one of the contributors to Emily Post's success came when more and more people wanted to know how to behave in social situations. Letters of inquiry launched a career, still a part of Americana.
- Seniors Who Hear Voices - Learning to Trust Your Retirement Intuition
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Senior citizens who hear voices, that is listen to their intuition, are not necessarily "off their rockers." As a matter of fact intuition is often a well honed retirement skill allowing one to rely on a sixth sense for decision making and problem solving. This, of course, does not in any way encourage making decisions or solving problems with only intuition at work. It is, however, one of the mechanisms for thinking through, listening to your own well developed good judgment, and coming up with an outcome that you will be prepared to go with.
- Passion For Seniors and Their Significant Others
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Question: When is Passion no longer possible for a senior citizen whose age seems to be a worrisome concern? Answer: Never, so long as breathing is practiced with adequate regularity! Do not expect here an in depth analysis of physical activities and factors which discourage passion.
- Retirement Vulnerability - Scams, Spams, Flim Flams and Bunko Artists
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Senior Citizens, because of increased vulnerability, are in a position to be conned more easily than at any other time in their lives. And activities of con artists are on the increase. There are a lot of people in retirement jumping on band wagons these days in hopes of that wagon taking them somewhere better.
- What is Your GQ? - Grandparent Quotient
[Home-and-Family:Grandparenting] No matter when we senior citizens finally achieve being a grandparent, there are some tests to help identify our capability and capacity for being a good one. My experience is certainly limited in the role and I have never taken courses in retirement to boost my GQ. Basic intuition and sensitivity contribute about as much to ability and smarts as most anything else.
- Achieving Happiness, Fulfillment and Joy in Retirement
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] The most desirable frame of mind in aging is happiness. To be sure happiness emerges in all kinds of shapes and dimensions. Being a senior citizen often means that one has accomplished maturity and control sufficient to experience happiness with regularity.
- Find Treasures Everyday - Is it a Valuable Antique Or Just Plain Junk?
[Home-and-Family:Crafts-Hobbies] Senior Citizens may have unknown hidden treasure in their homes. It may depend on your definition of "treasure," but it is possible to discover treasure everyday. A recent archaeological find in Germany proves the premise. History will need to be rewritten.
- Fill Your Life With Satisfaction - Eight Bonuses For Senior Citizens Activities
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] 2009 offers opportunities and activities for creating a life satisfying series of days and moments. A year doesn't happen all at once, even for senior citizens who decry how rapidly time flies. The Senior Citizen age is an everyday, minute at a time process. We surprise ourselves when we discover what we can do with time. The first goal of a senior citizen is to make every day productive.
- For Christmas Week - Things I Wish I Had Said
[Relationships:Friendship] There are many things I wish I had said as the year closes. Although I am a senior citizen living happily in retirement, I cannot claim memory issues about what I didn't say. Rather, I must admit to unthoughtful or neglectful behavior. Not a happy thought, so here are a few things I wish I had told you.
- December - A Good Time to Review Your Medications
[Health-and-Fitness:Medicine] Most prescription suppliers keep very accurate and current records, a very valuable service for senior citizens. At year end, in preparation for your next physical, this offers a good opportunity to do an inventory of what is in your record. Inventories in retirement are important. It offers a chance to ask questions and to evaluate whether there are generic replacements which may also offer significant financial savings. You may also discover that there are some drugs that may be removed from your regimen.
- Christmas Shopping is a Habit That Might Need to Be Examined
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] If you are a senior citizen who does Christmas Shopping and are in the throes of deciding how to manage this year's gift giving challenges, perhaps it is a good time to alter your behavior. Christmas shopping is a tradition to be sure, one that is skillfully encouraged through advertising. Sometime, shortly after the holidays, in year's past, examining just how far one has taken the addiction adds up to quite a little sum. It appears, this year, more circumspect judgment is being used in forays to shop and buy. Good news.
- Rescue a Pet
[Pets] Struck with how many stray animals are out there now, ostensibly because the economic downturn has compelled people to abandon their pets, why not consider adopting a pet from a rescue shelter? To be sure, doing so means that you are in a position to provide adequate and appropriate care including shelter, a healthy diet, good grooming and over all commitment to the pet in question.
- This is a Good Day to Stop Worrying
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] For the most part most of what happens happens with or without our worry. On a lesser scale, the little things we choose to worry about are likely beyond our control as well. Many senior citizens spend some time with some frequency choosing to worry. And most of the outcome of what we have selected to worry about, is resolved.
- Happiness - The Best Dividend of All
[Self-Improvement:Happiness] History is about to swallow 2008. The big fish of time is about to overtake the little fish of one measly year. How brief a year is. How transient and swift is its passage. And we, we who no longer count the hours or the days, are caught up in the piracy of months and quarters. Here and gone. Aging is a process requiring the ability to adjust to speed. Everything seems to move faster, but us. As in "Fiddler on the Roof," sunrise, sunset, how swiftly go the days. From gainfully employed to suddenly retired. From a father or mother to children to empty nesters. From in charge to needing to be charged up. From active to deactivated.
- Let Me Know the Next Time You Drive
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] Searching for a parking spot in a well known super store lot, often leaves retirees in fear and trembling. There are persons who never look back to see if someone is approaching, as they are backing out. There are drivers who lurch right and left and stop suddenly without regard for anyone in any direction. There are those coming from the wrong direction down the lane, seeking a way to extract a parking space by wedging themselves in, in spite of the impending approach of another vehicle.
- Retirement - Find Money in Unexpected Places
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] It took a long time to begin sorting through and actually using coupons. But, now it seems practical and prudent. It took even longer to decide to be disciplined about returning items not needed, often bought on impulse. Often, when renewal deadlines loom, like getting the car inspected, paying bills before the due date, having your car serviced before 5k miles...all seem to be "responsible" things to do. Except: it costs you money.
- Warren Buffett - The World's Richest Man, Financially, Ethically and Morally
[News-and-Society:Economics] "By the time you get to be my age, you want to know just how many of the people who love you, actually do love you!" Warren Buffett, the sage of Omaha and originator of this quote, was an acquaintance from our 20 years in that wonderful Midwestern city. His wife Susie, now deceased, was heavily involved in a number of community organizations. She was a true friend and a wonderful advocate of the disenfranchised.
- Prostate Cancer, Part 2 - Surgery and Its Side Effects
[Cancer:Prostate-Cancer] When, almost a year ago now, it was determined that I had Prostate Cancer, Gleason Scale 9, there was but one option in dealing with it. Because of a collision of favorable circumstances, quick action was available. For that, I have to thank my spouse, my former son in law, my primary physician, a personal friend who is my urologist, and an imminently qualified oncologist. And, that, of course is just part of the team. As one discovers in the face of life threatening diseases, one is surrounded by a whole cloud of supporters, family and friends.
- Listening - Heart and Eye Health
[Relationships:Friendship] Before her death, I quoted Ann Landers a great deal. She was, and remains, a seer who had a clear understanding of the human condition. She was always on the cusp of things. She was alert to her readers' needs and sensitivities. How I wish I could be a male Ann Landers! Her columns were always in response. She opened the doors to her readers to march in with their concerns and comments and even agonies.
- The Importance of Telling Stories to Children and Grandchildren
[Home-and-Family:Grandparenting] A number of years ago I was sitting at the fountain of a drug store (who remembers those?) when I overheard two young men discussing their respective fathers. One shared that his father had walked 3 miles to school, often in very bad weather. The other, quick to retort, replied "every year my father gets older he walked further to school!" So every generation learns from the last. This one may be a tough lesson for our youngsters, accustomed to so many luxuries and privileges.
- Retirement - How Can I Adjust Happily?
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Two of the adjustments that often come with retirement involve changing habits and habitat. Not everyone moves from their home, but many choose to resettle elsewhere. Habitat change is an upheaval that some choose not to go through. Habits, however, are a universal phenomena in retirement. Our day to day routine is met with "what am I going to do" with my time. There are as many answers as there are retirees.
- The Wake Up Call - Financial Crisis, Greed and Consequences
[News-and-Society:Economics] OK... it's here, that moment so anticipated and dreaded. I'm talking about the financial crisis facing our country today, a crisis of greed and overindulgence. It really isn't a surprise, after all it wasn't the apple in the tree that caused the problem, it was the pair on the ground. And the pair wanted more! They wanted to explore the boundaries in this myth of our origins. But, this myth is full of truths about the human family and condition.
- Assisted Living - How Can I Help My Loved One Make the Move?
[Home-and-Family:Elder-Care] We stopped by to see my 88 year old mother the other day. She resides in an Assisted Care Facility. It is a commodious operation. Her home now is a one large room, bath and (by her request) exceptionally large closet. It has a kitchenette. It is really very comfortable. But, the journey to get to this home was fraught with several emotional road blocks.
- Prostate Cancer - Why is the PSA Test Important?
[Cancer:Prostate-Cancer] There is for men a notorious Positive Sign of Aging (PSA)! If you are a man, or a woman who cares for a man, any man, PSA needs be added to your annual list of reminders, particularly and especially for those past 40.
- Friendship - The Milk of Human Kindness
[Relationships:Friendship] What is it about humans that we draw satisfaction out of being judgmental? I don't know about you, although I have my suspicions, but I expect, like me, you have made a whole truck load of mistakes, bad calls, irrational and poor choices. My guess is that those have created pain and frequent conflict in your life. They surely have in mine. So, how does it happen that when someone of national prominence, in politics or entertainment or business, falls, some seem to derive macabre satisfaction from their falling?
- What About Christmas? A New Way to Look at Giving
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] What About Christmas, this year? Will we send cards or letters? How about gifts, will we be pressed by our own guilt, need, tradition, not to mention customary exchanges to spend when it really isn't prudent to do so? How can we be honest with ourselves and everybody else on our list? How can we avoid creating any tension, unnecessary expectations, disappointments as the day approaches?
- Holiday After Thoughts - Go For the Good
[Health-and-Fitness:Weight-Loss] Okay senior citizen-friends, it's time to get off the sofa and begin the day to rid yourself of some of the 3000 or so calories you enjoyed yesterday. Of course, some of it has already turned to fat in our aging bodies and will take a great part of next year to remove, not including how much more is added during the coming holidays.
- Bad Times and Good Choices - Managing Family Finances During a Repression
[News-and-Society:Economics] Are you getting your daily vitamins, the ones that address the likelihood of depression and dark moods? The aging population searches for elusive answers. Are you ready to deal with the anticipated continuing slide in the economy, in joblessness, in consumer confidence and spending, in reduced possibilities for any near term solutions to this economic morass we find ourselves collectively experiencing? Senior citizens around the country find themselves searching for answers to stretching their financial dollar in these difficult times. Heading off this misery will take more than Pollyanna perspectives. Looking at the bottom line trying to ascertain if there is enough to make it through whatever years remain in retirement is a profile in courage. Giving in to the bad news and getting hyped up about all the bad news aren't solutions. They are options, but not solutions.
- Learn How to Communicate With the Younger Generation
[Home-and-Family:Grandparenting] Until retirement, I thought I was keeping up fairly well. Then, as a senior citizen, I began reflecting on how few actors and singers and other popular icons I knew by name any longer. I also became aware that I had allowed technology to outrun me. When observing video games, I remembered how much fun PONG used to be. Magazines became suddenly overrun by teen driven products and jargon and styles.
- Retirement and Elections - Points to Ponder in the Aftermath
[News-and-Society:Politics] Dappled sunlight hits the ground through limbs almost naked of their leaves. A fat squirrel scurries across the leaf covered lawn, just outside the window. And the elections are over! This is the dawning of "what happens next" in a democracy faced with despair, but under girded now by hope.
- Twin Celebrations - Halloween and All Saints Day
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] Halloween and All Saints Day are twin occasions. One, through historical and traditionally cultural celebrations, points to the observance of All Saints Day, which focuses less on the macabre and more on the spiritual. One is no less an occasion for confronting the reality of death than the other.
- Celebrate Thanksgiving Early
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] What about celebrating Thanksgiving early this year? No need to reiterate all the reasons why not. Even since last Thanksgiving, the mood of cynicism has taken on epidemic proportions. Yet, through it all, most of us in retirement are inordinately blessed. Sure, there are craters of despair, potholes of misfortune, dead ends, cul de sacs and roads to nowhere. Sure, it will be, according to those who prognosticate about such things, a good while before we will, if ever, see a return to Coolidge's famous "normalcy". Things have happened so fast, it appears the world is turning now on a different axis. The outcome is without predictability and full of uncertainity.
- Politics - Ponderings on the Election and What Matters Most
[News-and-Society:Politics] It's getting closer. Thank God and the rising and setting of the sun. In just days we will finally see the moment when the curtain falls and the election is over. Assuming there is no tie or contest in the outcome. At this moment, it appears the Democratic presidential candidate had the lead and will likely be elected. It may be time. There is something to be said for balancing leadership styles and political philosophies over time. However, let us keep several pieces of advice in mind:
- The Politics of Compassion and Understanding - Compromise
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] What if your candidate fails to win on November 4? We have been about this national undertaking for well over a year. For Senior Citizens and the general public alike, this quadrennial episode is like final exams. It is the reckoning of how our democratic republic will be governed in the next four. Either we will pass or fail, whether we are in retirement or still in the work force. This time, it is as if all of us are up for our PhD dissertations.
- The Loss of Friends in Sudden Death - An Earthquake Moment
[Home-and-Family:Death-Dying] Sudden, unexpected, tragic! Family and friends of a well known retired couple were in shock when learning of their deaths in an automobile and motorcycle accident last Saturday. It stops anyone short, whether you knew those involved or not. The temporal nature of our brief lives faces us straight on. The departure of people you take for granted, that they will just be there, suddenly is met with stark reality.
- Retirement - Stop Wasting Time With Immovable Objects
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Wasted time is a pet peeve of mine. I'm aging and retired and I don't have time to waste. That is not to say that all time be spent in productive pursuit. On occasion there is nothing better or wiser to do than study the clouds, look for a rainbow or chase a butterfly. Wasted time, especially in retirement, is agreeing to allow oneself into a cul de sac in conversation, in which there is no outlet, except the one you took going in.
- Series on Aging - Part Six, Preserving Friendships That Last a Lifetime
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] There are lots of books and studies and articles advising senior citizens how to keep their immune system healthy. Among the conclusions there is an insight that is particularly helpful to the aging population: Keep your friends! To be sure, this, like any exercise helpful to body, mind and soul, takes work. It is more than sending an annual Christmas card or letter. I have a friend who, every year at birthday time, remembers to send a greeting card and calls on my birthday. We have known each other since First Grade. That is a true friend.
- Aging Gracefully - Giving Up Things As You Grow Older
[Home-and-Family:Elder-Care] Scaling back is a necessary and important task facing seniors as they grow older. It is just not possible to keep everything accumulated by the aging population. There comes the time for sorting. A lot of "things" are easy to toss. Some, with sentimental value, are more difficult.
- Creative Thinking in an Economic Downturn - Some Ideas For Families Who Are Trying to Lower Expenses
[Home-and-Family] No long trips, fewer shopping sprees, less frequent family visits, no air travel, except in emergencies, reducing going out to eat, this is what can be expected in an economic downturn, particularly one as serious as we currently face. What is one to do? How does one come up with creative possibilities for a break from the real world, for enjoying one's family, children, grandchildren, life? We who have become so accustomed to doing what we want to do when we want to do it may find it hard to tighten the belt, but almost everyone is now faced with such a likelihood.
- Series on Aging - Part Five, Aging and Volunteerism
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] What can I do? As a member of the aging population, I don't want to just sit in my rocking chair. A previous article, "Retirement: Boundless Opportunities and Wide Open Doors," broached this subject a while back. Response to it has been very positive. So, let's look at it again and from another perspective, focusing on seniors as volunteers.
- Series on Aging - Part Four, When Should I Give Up Driving?
[Home-and-Family:Elder-Care] Most seniors in retirement learned to drive at a time in our culture when being behind the wheel seemed to add to ones ego. Our automobiles were an extension of us. For males, it had to do with masculinity, arriving, having a leg up. Not being a female, I don't know how they felt. My guess is that it just served as a convenience. But as we age, safety behind the wheel becomes a critical issue.
- Series on Aging - Part Three, Checking on Your Memory
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Where are those keys? What did I do with my eyeglasses, the book I was reading, my wallet, etc. ad nauseum? Sound familiar? Loss of memory is a state of mind! Now that's really profound.
- How Do I Decide When It's Time For a Hearing Aid?
[Health-and-Fitness:Ears-Hearing] Seniors everywhere face a series of potentially debilitating health issues. The aging process is full of a variety of breakdowns in our physical health. For example, many senior citizens face hearing loss. Thank goodness hearing aids are available to compensate. However, How in the world do I decide it's time for a hearing aid?
- A Lifetime Inventory - Time to Weigh Needs and Wants
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Early reports on the financial crisis suggest at least a part of most retirees' nest eggs has taken a hit. No surprise. There are a lot of us out here who will need to do some serious reckoning with our resources. Retirees are especially vulnerable, for the most part, because there isn't a steady income stream when investments are removed from the picture. Social Security and some pension plans help, but can't cover most living expenses. There is the rub.
- Series on Aging - Part Two, When Caregivers Give Out
[Home-and-Family:Elder-Care] A whole milieu of human experiences is introduced to the person who serves as pastor in charge of a local church. Among those is dealing with older persons, couples in particular, who are dealing with a very serious illness of one or the other. Often, these illnesses include cancer, alzheimers, a multitude of other ailments which create debilitating circumstances. The one who is ill, if aware, surely does not find joy in placing such a heavy responsibility on his/her mate. Often, these are situations which occur before hospice care is available.
- Series on Aging - Part One, Looking For a Place to Retire
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Looking for traces of Mayberry as a location for retirement? Well, there are numerous lists, found frequently on the Internet, which espouse the qualities of various communities and cities around the country. It all depends on what seniors are searching for. Those are the preliminary considerations that must be settled first. Knowing you will not find everything you want in one place will be an important starting point.
- My Granddad and Me - The Best Time I Ever Had
[Home-and-Family:Grandparenting] One of the best times I remember ever having was a trip taken with my father and grandfather to the Ft Worth cattle yards. We loaded a calf to take to the yards and little guy though I was, they allowed me to go along. How exciting it was to be included, to be thought grown up enough and ready enough to go on such an adventure with the big men. An added bonus of the trip was that my grandad had promised to buy me a new pair of cowboy boots. Oh, I was so excited. I was ecstatic. In fact, more than the the trip itself, the boots today stand out as the most remembered symbol of that journey.
- Retirement - Talking With Your Spouse About Difficult Topics
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Sharing knowledge, particularly in a marriage and family, is a critical Must for Seniors. A conversation with a dear friend the other day revealed that a mutual friend was spending her nights and days in the hospital with her critically ill husband. My friend shared that the wife had no idea about any of the matters regarding the couple's financial affairs. She had, as too often happens in male dominated relationships, just gone along with his taking care of it all. Now, in the hospital, experiencing serious, life threatening issues, it is almost too late to be brought up to speed.
- Managing My Finances - Not to Decide is to Decide!
[News-and-Society:Economics] This is one of those days. This is a day for evaluation and considerable thought. This is a day for making some decisions, not in haste, but deliberately, prudently and emphatically. Harvey Cox, theologian of the 60's era, declared 'not to decide is to decide!" So, if anxious about the state of affairs and the shaky economy, it is time to do more than watch and wait. You may decide to do nothing, to remain with your financial situation as it is, but at least you will have chosen that path with forethought.
- Retirement - Taking Charge of Your Life and the Remote Control
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Thank God for the remote control! My habit for using it has been not so much to switch channels to something as to get away from those obnoxious $19.95 ads and "But wait" products that promise ideal solutions to every need. My pact with the television set is that I won't allow that kind of brusque, harsh and rude presence in my home. I wouldn't accept it from a real, live human guest. Therefore, why should I permit it on the screen? In other words, my message is "Stop yelling in my house!" Either the set goes off or the channel gets switched.
- Retirement - Baby Boomers and Their Adjustment to Change
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Retirement is a revolving door. No sooner does one have "everything in place," than something comes along to interrupt the flow. Frankly that isn't new nor surprising. That is a definition of life. Expecting total tranquility, hoping to avoid crises and change, harboring illusions about the golden years leaves one ill equipped to be ready for that door to slap you in the face. So how does one get ready for the revolving door. Here are some clues:
- Autumn - Celebrate Its Beauty
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] Welcome Autumn! There are two seasons which seem to top out as favorites.... they are autumn and spring, not counting winter and summer. Autumn is replete with color and aromas and the sense of getting ready for another year to end. It is that in between time...between the lazy days of summer (if ever that were true) and the season of holidays, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, the New Year (and, of course my birthday, which everyone celebrates on December 31).
- Reclaiming the Good Name of Religion
[News-and-Society:Religion] What is the IQ of someone who believes and espouses that "puberty is the age of consent?" Well that is just one of the off the wall, crazy, misinformed opinions of the latest "evangelist" to flame out. Not unlike politicians, some preachers use their positions to propound theories and exact obedience that costs the rest of us in pain and currency. There have been too many of these snake oil sales persons who continue to use slimy methods to "sell" their religion. How many will be duped? How many more will be ripped off, raped, held up?
- Retirement - Finding Promise in an Unpromising World
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Now what? Recent weeks have laid a heavy load on many older and retired persons across this country. The horrendous storms which began off the coast in the Gulf and in Florida and then traversed through the Midwest and points in the north and northeast left scars and pain all along the way. The Stock Market trembled and is still shaking, leaving many now retired, and some yet to be, anxious about their economics and frail in their hopes for some kind of assurance and security.
- Retirement - Mean Green Tea and Other Opportunities
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Doors unopened, windows nailed shut, closets unexplored....until a knock comes from the other side of that door, a baseball comes flying through that window, that closet is finally revealed with all its treasures. That is what it has been like since undergoing the new discipline of writing. Just today a new opportunity was introduced, yesterday an invitation came to edit the publication of a new book, windows and doors and closets are flying open all over the place. And, I thought my dotage had already set in.
- Retirement Pitfalls - Keeping Your Head Above the Water in Politics and the Economy
[News-and-Society:Politics] It had to happen. First they began changing and blow drying the images of our historic heroes on our currency. Now, wouldn't you know it, for something that is not much needed any longer, the visage of Abraham Lincoln on the one cent coin is being altered. Is nothing sacred any more, I ask with tongue in cheek.
- Retirement - Boundless Opportunities and Wide Open Doors
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] In a recent conversation with a friend of more than 50 years, I invited her to share some ideas with me about how she might envision my spending the rest of my retirement years. She was, as she always is, gracious in her response. I list here the ideas she shared with me. Maybe, you have friends who would offer you similar motivations in considering the investment of yourself in ways not previously seriously considered.
- Retirement - Rules of Engagement For Care Givers and Receivers
[Home-and-Family:Elder-Care] A series of rules which may be useful in keeping lines of communication and caring open is offered to those who are willing to assume the discipline of persistent and patient attention for those important in our lives. Rule One: Do not abandon your aging parent(s)! No matter your age, if your parents are beginning to show signs of dependency, be sure you refer to this rule daily.
- After Ike - The Pathos and Pain of Disaster
[News-and-Society:Weather] After Ike, those of us less affected than many went about the routine of minor clean up. It didn't take long. There were limbs strewn about the property, leaves down in clumps, all the patio furniture had to be put back in place. But imagine, no trees, no leaves, no patio! Imagine nothing being where something was. Imagine the utter helplessness. Listen to the cries, again, for help and hope. Stand in soggy shoes and look to the horizon, where for miles there is nothing but devastation. Imagine the sense of of absolute hopelessness.
- Politics and Medicine - Choosing Brain Surgeons and Presidents
[News-and-Society:Politics] Fortunately, I haven't had to choose a brain surgeon yet. But, if I did I would have a careful list of criteria that would need to be met. That list would take several things into account. I think the choice process also has something to do with choosing presidents.
- An Ill Wind Blowing - A Plea For Reason and True Goodness in American Politics
[News-and-Society:Politics] "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good," exclaimed John Heywood in 1546. Perhaps today's news suggests the veracity and tenacity of this antique proverb. Ill winds seem to be blowing rather ferociously these days. The storms that affect so many and so much, the financial markets that plunge so deeply, the evidence of consequences of ethical and moral and legal and political and financial choices seem to be battering the world's psyche.
- A Strong Wind Blowing - Religion and Science Are Not Contradictory!
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Book of Acts in the Good News version of the New Testament refers to the occasion of the first Pentecost after Jesus' death. Pentecost, a Jewish tradition, had been adopted and adapted by Christians. In the Christian tradition it falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter. The second chapter of Acts speaks of a "strong wind blowing." From that St .Paul deduced this occasion to have significant meaning to Christians and their theology. Fast forward to the last several days.
- Marriage - What We Learned When the Paradigm Shifted and We Left the Single Life
[Relationships:Marriage] What joy remains! August 31 marked our wedding anniversary. It was 1975 and we blended a family, closed out my five years of being a bachelor since divorce, ended the single life for my spouse, who was then 32. It was, as most times are, a time of paradigm shifts. Thirty-three years later, what has been learned from our experience?
- Birthdays and Anniversaries - Celebrate in Unusual Ways
[Home-and-Family:Holidays] This month marks the occasion of some very significant dates. You won't find these dates marked in red on your calendar, no holiday falls on them, no great hoopla occurs around them. They are just dates of mostly ordinary, very conscientious and respected people. In this case the dates are the birth of my father, now deceased, and the 72nd anniversary of my parents, marriage (my mother will be 89 in November). Dad would be 93 this year.
- Senior Health - Sudoku, Scrabble and Chess
[Health-and-Fitness:Mental-Health] Mental Stimulation, like exercise, becomes increasingly more important as one ages. And, the good news is, that in our well wired and curious culture there are wonderful ways to stimulate one's mind. It is fascinating that, not unlike adolescents, seniors often cave in to the "there is nothing to do" syndrome. But, there is. Now whether there is desire, motivation, and willingness to discover the many options, is quite another thing.
- Retirement - Be a Litter Quitter
[News-and-Society:Environmental] Life on a rural county road has numerous benefits. Tranquility, little traffic, reduced pollution and noise, no sirens, and few neighbors. My "Walden Pond' is an idyllic place. A friend says that if they would just pave the road gold, that runs alongside his acreage, he wouldn't have to die and go to heaven. But it takes some effort to keep my road clean, and that's where Being a Litter Quitter comes in.
- Politics - The Id in Idealism and the Cyn in Cynicism
[News-and-Society:Politics] While cynicism is often all the rage, particularly in an election cycle, it surely is not representative of the best within us. Idealism is! So, choosing behaviors, which seems to be the one most suited to your disposition? Sure, it's easy to pile on and denigrate and downplay, and arouse suspicion and fear. Of course, there are those whose paranoia loves to be fed and in great quantity. Naturally, there will be some who, even if the sky is blue and the sun is bright, will insist a storm is surely on its way.
- End of Life Choices - What Are They and How Do I Know What's Right?
[Home-and-Family:Death-Dying] Some have inquired...ok what do you do if you have a spouse facing a terminal diagnosis or you find yourself facing imminent death? Whoa! We don't talk about issues like that. Not on the internet or on popular talk shows or in columns in magazines and newspapers.
- Retirement - Are the Golden Years Really Golden?
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Try this on! The Golden years? Well, it turns out, some of us are not so sure. Maybe it's more the Iron Age Years, when it takes iron will to get up in the morning and make it through the day, secure in sufficient armor to protect one from assaults of body and mind, heart and soul, and yes, aging. Or perhaps it is the Brass Age, when one discovers the machinations of the brassy are the real contributors to survival and overcoming the attacks of aging and change and uncertainty.
- Calculated Risk For Seniors
[Finance:Personal-Finance] My cousin, a retired employee with the FDIC, shared a blog with me the other day that gives good information about calculated risk for Seniors. Whether you are a Senior or still in the work force, some economic considerations are important for all of us. We aren't the only nation in an economic tailspin.
- Retirement, Real Estate, and Moving On
[Home-and-Family:Retirement] Selling one's house in the middle of retirement seems a risky and somewhat overwhelming decision. But here we are. Ten years after building our dream home on an acreage that has been in my maternal family since 1850, we are in the throes of another experience in separation anxiety.
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