If you’re casting about for a way to take the edge off Trump’s wrecking ball, I heartily recommend the uplifting powers of a great...
Women 60+10
Why A Blog for Older Women?
WOW is now 18 months old, but I’m still asked: “Do we really need another blog? Let alone one for older women.” If the world is rushing off the cliff, shouldn’t older women try to enjoy their golden years and not get distracted by the Trump White House? The very fact that Trumpism is taking over speaks to the need for the voices of [...]
Pat Taub
REKINDLING SEXUAL DESIRE Guest Post by Walker Thornton
When a woman tells me that her sexual desire has decreased I want to know more. What’s behind that statement? What’s going on in her life, or her body that causes her to feel little interest in sex? I don’t believe you wake up one day to find that sexual desire has suddenly disappeared. It happens gradually. Some of the factors that [...]
Pat Taub
Please Don’t Let Me Get Alzheimer’s!
When I teach “Women and Aging,” I start off by asking the participants to fill out an Aging Inventory. One of the questions is, “What is your greatest fear about aging?” Invariably 85% of the class, or higher, will answer, “Developing Alzheimer’s.” There is ample evidence to support my students’ fear of developing Alzheimer’s. [...]
Pat Taub
The Joys of Living Alone as an Older Woman
Some 25 years ago I heard a lecture by Jean Shinona Bolen, the San Francisco Jungian psychiatrist and author of books on women and the goddess. In her talk Bolen commented, ‘The best kept secret in most women’s circles is that the happiest woman in the group is the 67 year old grandmother.’ At the time I couldn’t image being “happy” [...]
Pat Taub
Two Elder Maine Women Poets: Janet Shea and Joanne Booth
Maine, where I live, is familiar to many as the grayest state in the nation. What is often overlooked in this statistic is the phenomenal number of elder women who continue to create art and live meaningful lives through their 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. Maine’s old women continue to inspire me as I move through my 70’s. In this spirit [...]
Pat Taub
The Yellow Coat : A short story by Pat Taub
The yellow coat was an odd choice for Mother because she usually went along with what her friends wore, but no one else had anything that even closely resembled mother’s yellow coat. It was made of thick cashmere in a deep canary color with red buttons and a red lining. It had a swing back, typical of ‘50’s glamour, and a seductive [...]
Pat Taub
Don’t You Dare Call Me OLD!
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
Awake at 2:30 AM!
It seems that almost every older woman I know, myself included, has sleep problems. Insomnia is the new hot topic. Sleep tips abound on the Internet and in popular women’s magazines. For most of us the problem isn’t so much falling asleep but waking up in the wee hours of the morning and not being able to get back to sleep. Conventional [...]
Pat Taub
Sorting Out My Religious Confusion: A Conversation with Rev. Jeanette Good
I’ve been around the bend and back on my spiritual journey. As a child I attended church with my family. It was more of a social event than a meaningful religious one. I wasn’t taught to pray nor was God mentioned in my household. When I married and had children of my own my ex-husband I and joined the Unitarian Church. It fit our agnostic [...]
Pat Taub
Book Review: Vivian Gornick, “The Odd Woman and the City” (An Older Woman’s Life Review)
This Christmas I received the new memoir by Vivian Gornick, The Odd Woman and the City. (The city in question is Manhattan.) It’s a book I’ve been eager to read, being a Gornick fan of many years. I read the young Gornick when she wrote for The Village Voice, documenting fiery protests of Second Wave Feminists. Later I read her mother-daughter [...]
Pat Taub