Boarding homes for seniors.“Poor homes” or “poor farms”. In the early 1900s, these are where elderly people went to live when their families weren’t able to care for them. Initially, the county an elderly person lived in shouldered the burden of caring for the aging population. Medicare/Medicaid took that over when it was formed in the mid 1950s.
Who is “They”?
“They” say always be polite.
“They” say get a college education.
“They” say eat your vegetables.
“They” say make your bed.
How and Why To Stay Relevant
“I want to stay relevant” — that’s one of the comments I heard from participants of my survey on how people feel about aging. That, or they “didn’t want to feel irrelevant”.
Why You Want to Get Uncomfortable
As a college sophomore, I wanted to be an exchange student. England seemed like an exciting option. Mom dissuaded me by telling me England didn’t have central heat and I wouldn’t be comfortable. I didn’t understand exactly what that meant, “no central heat”, but I understood Mom was saying I couldn’t go. Given my life experiences since then, that little bit of discomfort, if it had in fact been the truth, would have prepared me for my life.
30 Years to Life
People are living longer today than they were in 1900: 30 years longer!
If you were given 30 years, how would you spend them?
Searching For Meaning
Searching for meaning is a concept that has only recently, like in the past decade, had any meaning or sense of import to me. It seemed to me that life is meant to be lived and enjoyed, not explored and evaluated. Reading Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about life. I started searching for my meaning.
You Could Get Hurt! You Could Get Robbed!!
A common response to my announcement that I was walking the Camino de Santiago was that I could get hurt or robbed. These warnings were from people who knew nothing about the Camino culture or experience. At the time I puzzled over such first reactions. Now I smile and do my thing.
Challenge Accepted!
Do you approach challenges as something good, as a game, or as something to be avoided? Barny Stinson, a character in the TV series How I Met Your Mother loved challenges and was often heard saying “challenge accepted” as he took on some crazy challenge. That line always made me laugh. I seem to enjoy challenges, too.
What’s the Story You Are Telling Yourself?
During college, my roommate and I had many brain-stretching conversations. Generally, they were about science issues since that’s what we were studying. One conversation in particular sticks in my mind, and probably provided the biggest lesson.
Don’t Read This Before Bed
The mastermind group that emerged from the Transform Fear Into Action class has evolved in interesting and exciting ways. Initially, the group was planning to continue working on their fear transformation, based on the core curriculum of the course. It’s grown from that, though, and now we are working on exploring our worlds with the core concept — the transformation tool — helping us look at our worlds.