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
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 for much of my life. I have marched, protested, written, spoken out and stood with people who were fighting for [...]
Pat Taub
GUEST POST by BARBARA BENGELS When a good friend announced she was expecting her first great-grandchild, I immediately responded with the age-old question: “Is it a boy or girl?” Much has changed in my lifetime; the role of gender is among those. Recently a young friend went to the DMV to have their name and preferred gender [...]
Pat Taub
Lately I have been thinking about the meaning of home. Not the wonderful Victorian space I have lived in for almost 14 years; my neighborhood of tree-lined streets; the welcoming market; the Maine coastline that still takes my breath away. These places remain. What has changed is the country I thought I knew. I no longer feel at home here. [...]
Pat Taub
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?” True, it’s uncomfortably close to puppy-training, but we who pride ourselves on our own courtesies get [...]
Pat Taub
We have core stories we tell ourselves that trap us in a negative narrative: “If I speak up, my feelings might be hurt; I’m too shy to make new friends; I’m too old to take on a new project.” Esther Perel, the popular relationship therapist, contends the stories we tell ourselves are adaptive responses to childhood trauma, when [...]
Pat Taub
Contemporary beauty standards celebrate the older woman whose aging lines have been erased by cosmetic surgery, making her look years younger. Stretched out faces have become ubiquitous, no longer confined to film stars and celebrities; middle-income women are lining up for procedures from Botox to full face lifts, or traveling overseas [...]
Pat Taub
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 are wrestling with how best to care for a beloved family member who’s suffered a stroke. The condition is [...]
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
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