WOW: Women's Older Wisdom
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March 2024
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Challenges of Aging

Too Much Stuff

GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN I’ve collected Things all my life.  Children look enviously at the Things adults have and copy.  An early reader, I not only tunneled through books but wanted to HAVE them (thus a career in academia, where a full bookcase was a credential).  I bought jazz records, CDs, and memorabilia.  Aloha shirts, folk [...]

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“I Hate Getting Old”

I recently received an email from a WOW reader, who confessed to being angry about aging:  “I hate getting old.  I hate the wrinkles, sleep problems and bouts of loneliness . . . I hate having aged out of the dating scene.” The reader’s complaints carry a universal ring in our ageist and sexist culture, which presents a formidable [...]

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Coping With Fears of Alzheimer’s

This weekend I watched the powerful film, “The Father,” starring Anthony Hopkins as an 80-year-old-man with Alzheimer’s, and Olivia Coleman, as his devoted middle-aged daughter.  The film opens with a normal-appearing Hopkins in a well-appointed London flat listening to opera.  But as soon as he interacts with his daughter, his confusion [...]

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Being 76

GUEST POST by EILEEN GRIFFIN I did not welcome my seventieth decade. With the arrival of my 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and even the 60s, I crossed each threshold with relief or anticipation or calm acceptance, but always ready.  Not so with the 70s. On my 70th birthday, I wanted to open the door and holler “Go away, scat, you have the wrong house.” [...]

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Casting Off Regrets

Nervously I opened my aging report card. I earned respectful grades for healthy living, close relationships and meaningful pursuits, but a low grade for managing my regrets. No surprise. I tend to resemble Lady Macbeth uttering “Out damned spot!” In my case, it’s regrets that I can’t rub out rather than blood. I’m haunted over screaming [...]

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The Key to A Happy Old Age

In his best-selling book, “Happiness is a Choice You Make,” the author, John Leland makes the intriguing claim,  “If you want to be happy, think like an old person.” I was skeptical of Leland’s thesis, lacking role models for old people who were happy. My paternal grandmother railed at her live-in help; my maternal grandmother became [...]

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Dealing with Uncertainty

GUEST POST by GWEN McCAULEY   Here I am thinking of ‘retiring’ for a second time after officially retiring 25 years ago. That first time I retired I received a generous buy-out package from a major telecommunications company after 20 years of hard work and much success. I knew the world was changing. I knew that the aspects of corporate [...]

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Resisting Body Shaming 

Whenever I visit Western Europe I can’t help but notice how much kinder it is to the aging woman than the States are. We are bombarded by media images that equate beauty almost exclusively with a young body. By contrast, women in Western Europe, while aware of their aging forms, don’t seem to experience body shaming to the same degree. [...]

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