"In this sticky web that we're all in, behaving decently is no small task." -- Novelist Stacey D'Erasmo

Sunday, August 6, 2017

The Retiring Mind

     The mind does not slow down in retirement. It just focuses on different things -- some of them are simply fun, while others run to deeper issues regarding health, retirement, and the course of our lives.

     One thing we know for sure is that time passes quickly -- and seems to speed up the older we get. Sometimes a milestone will emphasize the passage of time, especially anniversaries of births and deaths, war and peace, cultural milestones and . . . TV shows.

     This week Meryl Baer of Six Decades and Counting notes one especially influential TV show that premiered 60 years ago, on August 5, 1957. The program starred Dick Clark and ran on the air for more than 30 years. So swing over to The Music Lives On to read more about the show that not only appealed to baby boomers but put baby boomers in a starring role as well.

This is the city?
     Meanwhile, life has slowed down for the Carter family in southern Colorado -- or at least it has for the past week. So they decided to travel to the big city and do some shopping. If you want to find out the real story behind their excursion, drive on over to A Mid-Summer Trip to Pueblo and see how a couple of wild westerners handled the big city lights.

     Carol Cassara gets more serious as she notes that many people try to push down their fears and feelings about being sick. But medical researchers are beginning to see the health benefits of expressing those fears. Cassara points to a study showing that breast cancer patients who wrote about their deepest fears, including dying, had one-third fewer symptoms and doctor visits. Since her new business involves harnessing the power of the mind/body connection, in her post Feeling Is Healing she explores how expressing fears and feelings can support healing of all kinds.

     On another health front, Rita R. Robison on the Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide notes that according to Consumer Reports Americans Are Taking Too Many Prescription Medications. She identifies 12 situations where people might try lifestyle changes to address their symptoms without risking the sometimes dangerous side effects of drugs.

     Robison also reports on a poll showing that Consumers Support Financial Watchdog Agency. A significant majority of Americans favors the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's efforts to rein in the excesses on Wall Street and the practices of bad mortage and other predatory lenders. So at last . . . it seems that Democrats and Republicans agree on at least one thing!

     Finally, after watching the documentary "Coming of Age in Aging America," Kathy Gottberg offers a different perspective on the current aging model that most of us unconsciously believe in.

     People are living longer, and they are having fewer babies, not just in America but all around the developed world. "Although most of us baby boomers think big transitions like this are all about us as a generation," she notes, "we are just the introduction to a permanent shift. Gen X and Millennials will also have longer lives indicating a permanent shift in the human life course as we know it."

     We all have to start thinking of the aging process in a different way, because it changes the way we work and the way we live; it affects how we arrange our familes, how we receive health care, even how we think about politics.

     But don't rely on me to explain it. Head over to Designing a Fulfilling Life Matters Long Before Retirement and get the full story of how . . . you're not living your parents' retirement anymore.

9 comments:

Laura Lee Carter said...

Thanks for this great summary of Boomer thoughts and trips Tom. I was shocked by this statistic this morning: More than half of Boomers have less than $100,000 saved for retirement... That's an interesting and also scary idea for a new post!

Kathy @ SMART Living 365.com said...

Hi Tom! Thanks again for including my recent post about how retirement needs to be reconsidered in the coming years. I always appreciate help with getting the word out, and also love all the links to other bloggers writing about things that can affect us all. ~Kathy

stephen Hayes said...

I couldn't agree with you more t5hat time seems to speed up as we age. The weeks and months are flying by and sometimes it's scary.

Still the Lucky Few said...

I love these periodic summaries you do, featuring our fellow bloggers' postings! I'm always fascinated by the wide variety of subjects chosen by them. Of course, I have subscribed to some of them, but not all, fearing an already chock full inbox!

Anonymous said...

Interesting foray into the subject of getting sick and dying.

retirementreflections said...

Another great summary, Tom. Thanks so much for sharing this!

joared said...

A number of people in my generation didn't follow the prevalent marrying patterns then, waiting until we were older, having our few children even later, too. Those children follow the Boomers, but precede the larger generations that came after them. That group seems to be pretty much ignored in writings, so would be interesting to know with whom they mostly identify when they search for financial and retirement information. By no means scientific, those with whom I'm familiar seem more like their younger generations than Boomers, but perhaps you're more familiar with those trends than I.

Anonymous said...

Tom, we were married when she was 19 and I 20. Our three children each married at 30, understanding the challenges we endured. Eight grandchildren. Still happily (ecstatically) married, we marvel at our good fortune. Lesson? When you know, you know. And we both know that we've been most fortunate.

Rudy Hiebert said...

I'm surprised to not see anything about using a home business venture with legitimate tax deductions, if that's possible or a good idea. RH.