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...
Thinking About Death
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 a recent late-night phone call that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. (To preserve my brother’s [...]
Pat Taub
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Lisa Savage, A Perfect Roast Chicken, A Great Read & More!
Lisa Savage My pre-election jitters are bonkers, making me very grateful that the end is in sight. Just four days to go! I hate being boxed into the “lesser of two evils” choices. My preferred candidate was Bernie, but I will vote for Biden, because Trump is truly evil. All is not lost: one vote I can happily make is casting my [...]
Pat Taub
The Straight Scoop on Witches
With Halloween right around the corner, it’s an appropriate time to reflect on the origin of witches, and to understand how the village wise woman was turned into a representation of evil, becoming a “witch.” We have to travel back to the 1500’s in Western Europe, when women healers and midwives played a central role in village after [...]
Pat Taub
Lee Sharkey, Two Film Recommendation & Election Crazies
Lee Sharkey This week Mainers mourned the passing of Lee Sharkey, 75, a beloved Maine poet and peace activist. I got to know Lee after she and her husband gave up their country space for easier living in Portland. Her accomplishments were many: she was a co-founder of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, co-editor of the influential [...]
Pat Taub
Aging Like a Wise Woman
This week I’ll be a guest speaker for a Zoom class of older women, addressing what makes for a meaningful aging. For my presentation, I came up with these guidelines for growing into a wise older woman, which I’m sharing here: Honor Your Failures Reframe your “failures” as risks you took where you stuck your neck out. Examine [...]
Pat Taub
Barrett Hearings, Lisa Savage, Spirited Old Ladies & More
Amy Coney Barrett Hearings Nothing like having a Handmaid become our next Supreme to cast me deeper into my Covid-election despair. A bright spot of the hearings (if you can call it that) for Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court was when Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) used his time to document how dark money has become [...]
Pat Taub
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 [...]
Pat Taub
Scary Trump, My Father at 15, An Entertaining Film & More!
Unhinged President Trump is no longer a laughing matter. Everyone I know has gone from making jokes about him to genuine worry that he’s seriously unhinged. Referring to a recent interview with Fox, one pundit called Trump, “as high as a giraffe,” for making ridiculous charges, like saying California’s water shortage is because [...]
Pat Taub
Living with Uncertainty
“We’re living with uncertainty layered on top of uncertainty.”–NPR host, Meghna Chakrabarti “I’m filled with anxiety like I’ve never experienced before.”–A close friend “Nothing feels normal anymore.”–A comment I overheard waiting for my take-out coffee The collective uncertainty brought on by Covid [...]
Pat Taub
October Surprise, Katie Porter, A Must-See Film & More!
October Surprise I doubt that anyone anticipated an “October Surprise” in the form of Herr and Frau Trump testing positive for COVID. Will Trump prove to be a super spreader given his close contact with reporters and staff on Air Force One along with the huge maskless crowds he’s addressed recently? This morning on “Democracy Now” [...]
Pat Taub