Category Archives: Getting Old

Borrowing Bette

Posted on July 6, 2013 by hessd

Every metaphor you can think of is deficient in some respect and, regrettably,  that includes the metaphor I am going to use today.  I am going to treat the opportunity I have of living my life with Bette by the … Continue reading →

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Everyone Deserves to Live “Long Enough”

Posted on March 26, 2013 by hessd

Daniel Callahan is my kind of guy.  I first ran across him 20 years ago in his book Setting Limits: Medical Goals in an Aging Society.  Everything I have read since then has been a refinement of or an extension of his … Continue reading →

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It’s So Hard to Get Good Help These Days

Posted on March 3, 2013 by hessd

It is a truism among environmentalists that it is not possible to do just one thing.  I think it is true everywhere, but environmentalists have demonstrated it so clearly and so many times that I think they deserve to be … Continue reading →

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The Fret of Care

Posted on February 10, 2013 by hessd

Today, I am working with a title from one world and an event in another. The title comes from a hymn we sang in my church when I was a little boy.  The whole line, adapted to today’s question is, … Continue reading →

Posted in Getting Old, Love and Marriage | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Doing What You Can

Posted on January 26, 2013 by hessd

Back in the old days, before doctors were able to cure many illnesses, a big part of “medical care” was being with the patient.  Just being there says things that can’t be said otherwise, principal among them is, “You matter … Continue reading →

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Building Abscission Layers

Posted on July 6, 2012 by hessd

For the last twenty years or so, I’ve been thinking about abscission layers.  I have read meticulous accounts of those layers and the processes that reliably produce them in biology texts where, after several readings, I thought I got the … Continue reading →

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My Father’s Magic and How He Worked It

Posted on June 17, 2012 by hessd

When I was in my 20’s, I had the rare privilege of watching my father teach an adult Sunday School class, using abysmally bad materials.  The classes were a lot better than the materials.  That puzzled me. I got the … Continue reading →

Posted in Getting Old, Living My Life, ways of knowing | Tagged | 2 Comments

Just Ignore Them and Make the Shot

Posted on March 28, 2012 by hessd

I’m giving some serious thought to ending my career as an educator.  But being an educator, I don’t just decide to stop and then stop.  Oh, no.  I think about it; I write about it; I examine whether I really … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Getting Old, Political Psychology | 3 Comments

Remembering to Leave in Time

Posted on March 11, 2012 by hessd

I want to raise the question here of how to decide when to go live in a Senior Center of some kind—I’m thinking of a nice generic name like Paleo Acres.  This could be a Paleo Acres; I guess I’d … Continue reading →

Posted in Getting Old, ways of knowing, Words | 9 Comments

Win the Day

Posted on January 14, 2012 by hessd

What everybody knows is that the attitude with which you approach aging matters a great deal in your experience of aging.  And if you’ve ever tried it, you know that you can’t just “adopt a positive attitude” the way you … Continue reading →

Posted in Getting Old | 5 Comments