GUEST POST by MICHAEL STEINMAN That you are reading this surely means you don’t need it. But I ask your indulgence. When interacting with children we often try to teach civility, by prompting, “What’s the magic word?” [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL Like probably everyone reading this, I have been flooded with catalogs lately. After my father-in-law died, I handled his mail, including many catalogs as he enjoyed this kind of shopping for family gifts, and I started the mail order madness. Now I’m struggling to get off their lists. That made me think about what [...]
Pat Taub
For several years I taught the course, “Women and Aging” at Portland, Maine’s senior college. Without fail, every time we came to the segment on sex, previously verbal classes suddenly shut down. Their discomfort was palpable. Why are so many older women, among both married and single women, uncomfortable discussing sex? I [...]
Pat Taub
Poet Victoria Chang’s new book, “Dear Memory,” consists of letters to her deceased parents, asking them questions that have plagued her about her Chinese ancestry. Chang started me thinking about my own incomplete conversations with deceased relatives and close friends. I decided to write my own letters to the dearly departed, but with [...]
Pat Taub
Mary Robinson at COP26, Glasgow This week at the Glasgow UN Climate Conference, Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland and the current chair of The Elders at the UN, took aim at world leaders, who unlike poorer countries, are not in “crisis mode.” During a BBC interview she broke down, speaking through tears, beset with worry [...]
Pat Taub
Brene Brown, the popular self-help writer and TED speaker, insists that not until we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, can we truly live. You might be scratching your head thinking, “But I feel vulnerable a lot and my life is hardly a bowl of cherries.” This isn’t the association Brown has in mind. She wants us to embrace our vulnerability [...]
Pat Taub
Halloween My spirited 17 y.o. granddaughter from Oak Park, Il. dressed as the Grim Reaper for Halloween. Her costume symbolizes the concerns of so many young people, who are desperately worried about their future during these times of climate emergency. Videos from Glasgow show throngs of young climate activists cramming city blocks around [...]
Pat Taub
“I hate coming home to an empty house. The silence can be deafening.” “I can go days without speaking to anyone except the clerk in the grocery store or my mail carrier.” “I rarely reach out to my friends when I’m feeling lonely because I’m too embarrassed to admit I’m lonely.” “My adult daughter tells me to [...]
Pat Taub