There are too many mornings when I wake up with a heaviness. Sometimes it’s the weight of the world. Sometimes it’s the accumulation of years, recognizing there is less time ahead of me than behind me. I have been an activist [...]
Pat Taub
Aging has brought a renewed interest in the spiritual questions I grappled with during my late night college bull sessions. Is there a God? Can prayer make a difference in one’s life? What is my spiritual path? In my middle years I was too busy raising children and building a career to grapple with meaning of life questions with the intensity [...]
Pat Taub
I have never witnessed anything quite like it: the adverse, often combative reactions many older women have to the label of “old woman.” In my classes, “Women and Aging,” when I suggest that we adopt with pride the label “old woman” to counter the negative images of the aging woman, invariably most of the class will adamantly resist–this [...]
Pat Taub
April in New England, where I live, is often a time that brings out the worst in its neighbors. We split hairs over our taxes, curse the weather for taking so long to bring us Spring, and for older women, like me, for the dampness which exacerbates arthritis. Wanting to avoid the crotchy old lady label, I suddenly remembered my inspiration [...]
Pat Taub
If you need inspiration and reassurance that old age can be a dynamic time and not a passage to be feared, then grab Diana Athill’s two memoirs. The first, Somewhere Towards the End, was written when she was 89. Her most recent memoir, Alive, Alive Oh! was published last year when Athill was 98! Athill is a wonderful example of how one can [...]
Pat Taub