By PAT TAUB and LISA SAVAGE Aging with a loved one can tap into joys, strengths and the benefits, but also health changes, family tensions, and potentially devastating financial challenges. Consider this scenario: Friends of friends [...]
Pat Taub
“Don’t talk to me about Gaza. It’s too depressing.” “I refuse to read anything that involves the Orange Tyrant.” A dinner party invitation: “We’d love your company. Be forewarned: it will be a politics-free night.” –Common responses to news stories of the suffering in Gaza; Trump’s mean-spirited laws targeting [...]
Pat Taub
These days your favorite news sources likely feature stories about the war in Iran, desperation in oil-deprived Cuba, voter disenfranchisement, and Trump’s massive corruption schemes, relegating news of Gaza to a few paragraphs, reflecting ‘Gaza fatigue.’ After two plus years of waking to screens dominated by the genocide: bombed-out [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by ABBY FULLER Each year on May 15, Israelis commemorate that day in 1948 when their country declared its independence, For Palestinians, May 15 is Nakba Day—when they grieve their ancestor’s expulsion from present-day Israel. It is impossible to understand the relationship between Palestine and Israel without understanding [...]
Pat Taub
Two and a half years ago, you phoned, upending me with your words, “I have a terminal illness.” After we hung up, I wept, cursing the universe for saddling you with a difficult diagnosis. You’ve beaten the odds, surprising your doctors by living fully: attending senior college classes; maintaining membership on community boards and [...]
Pat Taub
“Grief is the price you pay for love.” Amy Bloom When I was young funeral attendance was largely confined to grandparents and ancient uncles and aunts. As an elder, funerals and memorial services routinely fill my calendar. In spite of death’s regularity, I remain awkward around a grief-stricken friend or relative. My discomfort is [...]
Pat Taub
This past weekend, I attended a screening of Earth’s Greatest Enemy, Abby Martin’s jarring documentary, exposing how the US Military has become the world’s biggest polluter. In the small, funky Brunswick, Maine theater, with admiration and certainly some nostalgia, I connected again with individuals who’d carried and continue to carry [...]
Pat Taub
I’d gotten used to fooling nature; people frequently assumed I was ten years younger than my age. Overnight that changed. Store clerks, strangers, and family members began recasting me as a little old lady needing assistance. At Walgreens, in search of a shower cap, I approached a clerk for help. The pleasant young woman escorted me [...]
Pat Taub
Research findings reveal reading poetry lowers blood pressure, improves brain functioning and enhances well-being, signaling poetry as a valuable resource for managing our turbulent times. Poetry reminds us that beauty coexists along with the world’s dark forces. Poems offer companionship; when a poem speaks to us, we feel less alone; [...]
Pat Taub
This past weekend I watched the film, “Rental Family,” set in contemporary Tokyo. Brendan Fraser plays an American actor, whose acting roles have dried up. In desperation he signs on with a Japanese “rental family” agency where actors are hired to assume family roles. Frazer’s roles, as Philip, include: the groom to a closeted lesbian [...]
Pat Taub
Several years ago, I participated in a National Geographic “people to people” tour to Cuba. Now that Trump’s oil embargo is threatening Cuba’s very survival, I’m sharing my memories of Cuba for those unacquainted with its amazing people. Everywhere I went Cubans were open and warm, eager to share their impressions of daily [...]
Pat Taub