This was Rodney King’s plea in 1992, when he was physically assaulted by the LA cops during that year’s race riots. Thirty-two...
Women 60+
Coping with Political Despair
During my church’s coffee hour this past Sunday I found myself in conversation with a politically concerned young woman who was eager to discuss Michelle Goldberg’s New York Times op-ed, “Democracy Grief is Real.” The gist of the essay is that Trump has induced profound political despair among liberals. My companion felt validated [...]
Pat Taub
Aging as a Lesbian
GUEST POST By DOREEN BLUMENFELD I’m not sure there is much difference to aging as a lesbian than as a straight woman. Same aches, same muddled brain, same thinning hair, and poor eyesight. What makes lesbians different as we age? Perhaps, and only perhaps, on the surface, some lesbians have a greater appreciation for women friends and [...]
Pat Taub
Embracing Your Aging Body Can Be A Radical Act
Can you imagine a scenario where you, a vital older woman, actually liked your body instead of making it a battleground where you fret over your weight, wrinkles, and saggy boobs? What if food wasn’t the enemy and sleepless nights had their own advantages? What if you had practices for honoring your body? Body acceptance for the older [...]
Pat Taub
Proudly Standing with Youth for Climate Justice
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL “You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to us children.” – Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate activist In all my years of activism, I had never heard anything like it. A shiver of nervous excitement ran through me. The high, piercing voice of a girl on a megaphone demanded: [...]
Pat Taub
The Older Woman’s New Power
Older women are feeling powerful as they discover a voice they didn’t possess in their previous decades. They’re speaking up with a boldness and confidence unknown to their younger selves. Writer and blogger, 80 year-old Elaine Soloway has shed her passive aggressive self to take on verbal bullies. The popular Australian writer, [...]
Pat Taub
Rebel With A Cause
GUEST POST by JANET WEIL I was not in a good mood as my husband John and I exited the LA Metro station for the Extinction Rebellion rally. An hour and a half on the terrifying freeways driving west from Palm Springs, followed by nearly an hour on the crowded, noisy Metro from Azusa to downtown Los Angeles, may illustrate some of the reasons [...]
Pat Taub
How To Be A Happy Older Woman
Given all the ageism and sexism smacking older women in the face aging can be a dismal state for many women. Mary Pipher to the rescue! In her new book, Women Rowing North, Pipher makes the case for a happy old age. She declares, “Happiness depends on how we deal with what we are given.” Piper interviews older women from all walks of [...]
Pat Taub
Miserable with Getting Old
I recently received an email from a WOW reader, who described herself as “miserable with aging.” She wrote, “I hate getting old. I hate the wrinkles, sleep problems and bouts of loneliness . . . I hate having aged out of the dating scene.” The reader’s complaints carry a universal ring in our ageist and sexist culture, which [...]
Pat Taub
How Learning to Play the Ukulele Helped Cure My ‘Nameless Depression”
Guest Post by Martha Rice You wake up one morning, and it’s back. You don’t know why. Things have been going along pretty smoothly. But on this morning, you wake up and for no apparent reason, you don’t have the spirit to get out of bed. You are suffering from a condition that I call “nameless depression,” a debilitating feeling [...]
Pat Taub
What Will You Do With the Rest of Your Life?
This question has been staring me in the face as my seventies flash by. When I was young it felt like I had all the time in the world to plot my future. Now my future has shrunk. I go to more funerals than weddings. I catch my children whispering behind my back, comparing notes on how I’ve slowed down. Fundamentally I have two choices: [...]
Pat Taub