While I’m an elder, I hadn’t given a lot of thought to dying, that is until my brother, who’s 20 months younger, announced in...
Aging, the Gift that (Hopefully) Keeps on Giving
GUEST POST by LISA SAVAGE I hit 65 this year which is a milestone that brought many gifts: Medicare, a family party outdoors with my same-month birthday sisters, and permission to be officially old. I already had arthritic hands, an inflamed sacroiliac joint, and cataracts so bad I gave up night driving years ago. When I wake up in the morning, [...]
Pat Taub
Key West, Octavia Butler, Macbeth & More!
Key West Vacation My winter escape to Key West continues, for which I remain grateful. While the Northeast is hunkering down for the biggest snowfall of the season, Key Westers are grumbling about Sunday’s weather forecast, which predicts a high of only 58! Miami could see temps in the 30’s. It’s all relative. On a walk yesterday [...]
Pat Taub
The Week I Plunged into Despair
Last week was not a good news week for me. It left me full of despair. I agonized over the Biden’s administration failure to advance their social programs designed to help those in need, while increasing oil drilling in defiance of climate change. To make matters worse the saber rattling over Putin’s troops on the Ukraine border, kept [...]
Pat Taub
Key West Vacation, Overworked Nurses, A Great Read & More!
Key West Vacation I feel very fortunate to have escaped the tundra for a few months to land in Key West. Because Florida is very lackadaisical about masks, thanks to Gov. DeSantis, I’m mostly laying low in my rental, and taking daily walks in the sun to restore my spirits. Here are a few Key West images, which capture the spirit of this [...]
Pat Taub
No Bucket List for This Gal!
I think I will tear my hair out if one more person asks, “How’s your bucket list coming along?” The implication is that I’m running out of time to camp in the Sahara, jump out of an airplane, learn Italian or any number of demanding feats. If I were to answer, “The hell with a bucket list,” in all likelihood, I’d be considered [...]
Pat Taub
How I Learned to Stop Fighting Aging
For a long time, I resisted aging. I dyed my hair, refused help, put off updating my will, and held my head upright to smooth out my wrinkled neck and sagging jaw lines. I relished being told that I looked much younger. Then Covid hit, forcing me into a prolonged isolation with hours and hours of long days alone. Without access to my hairdresser, [...]
Pat Taub
Mask Wars, “Don’t Look Up,” Ann Patchett & More
Mask Wars in Portland, Maine I was sickened to read in today’s Portland Press Herald that the vociferous mask wars have heated up in my hometown of Portland, Maine. This week the City Council passed a resolution requiring masks in all public places. The councilman, Andrew Zarro, who sponsored the ordinance has received death threats, [...]
Pat Taub
Not Your Typical New Year’s Resolutions
Last week I polled women on the WOW Facebook page asking them to share their 2022 New Year’s resolutions. Their responses surprised me. I anticipated that the vast majority would offer the typical resolutions to diet and exercise, but these answers were in the minority. Most of the women, while concerned with self-improvement, highlighted [...]
Pat Taub
Trailblazing Women We Lost in 2021
JANUARY Mary Catherine Bateson, 81 Bateson was born to two famous parents, Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. She is remembered for her 1989 feminist classic, Composing A Life: eye-opening interviews of five women who describe the challenges of being a modern woman, balancing work and family. Cicely Tyson, 96 This beloved actress lay the groundwork [...]
Pat Taub
A Christmas Orphan, Joan Didion, “Being the Ricardos” & More
Being A Christmas Orphan The surging Omicron virus had me scuttling my holiday plans to fly to Chicago to spend Christmas with my oldest son and his family. It was a hard decision, but it feels like a case of “Better safe than sorry.” Like many families, who are separated this year due to Covid, we will Zoom or FaceTime on Christmas [...]
Pat Taub