Category Archives: Getting Old

Who took my phone book?

Posted on July 7, 2019 by hessd

  So…I ran into my old friend Ted Nelson last week. That’s a real person. I’m not making any of this up. Ted is co-author of a very popular text (Mathematics for Elementary Teachers: A Conceptual Approach) now going into … Continue reading →

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Old and Active

Posted on May 23, 2019 by hessd

If you get far enough away from these two notions, it is possible to imagine them as binary. You are old or not; you are active or not. When you get closer, it seems more reasonable to ask things like … Continue reading →

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Prudence, resilience, and awfulizing

Posted on March 2, 2019 by hessd

The idea behind pairing these ideas is that the amount of care we exercise in preventing bad outcomes can, under some circumstances, be translated into an unrealistic and ominous assessment of what those outcomes could be. I have had a … Continue reading →

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Am I going somewhere?

Posted on December 18, 2018 by hessd

Where I live there are lots of old people, so, of course, there are a lot of deaths. I have written recently about the effect the high number of deaths has on how we take note of deaths and on how … Continue reading →

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Men who have not yet died

Posted on September 24, 2018 by hessd

I want to write a little about the relationships between men and women at the senior center where I live.  And I will.  I just want to play with a couple of words first. Words The first word is “dominate.”  … Continue reading →

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“Optimal” aging

Posted on July 15, 2018 by hessd

On a recent visit to one of the legion of doctors I have been seeing recently (don’t ask) I picked up a pamphlet called “Optimal Aging.” The tag line featured on the front of the trifold is:“There’s no place like … Continue reading →

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I believe in the integrity of the atom

Posted on July 6, 2018 by hessd

On the morning of the 4th of July, a friend of mine [1] was greeted with a cheery, “Happy Birthday.”  I’m sure he responded to the sentiment in a gentle way, but inside, he felt himself strongly rejected the idea.  … Continue reading →

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My place or yours?

Posted on June 4, 2018 by hessd

It’s not what you think. [1]  The “places” I am thinking of have to do with memorial services.  Bette and I have just come from a service at our church, celebrating the life of a dear woman.  We had just … Continue reading →

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Final Rest

Posted on May 16, 2018 by hessd

It took me roughly a year to decide to get a tattoo. It took something like 5—7 minutes to actually get the tattoo. Here it is. I am amazed, as I look back at this simple process, to think that … Continue reading →

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All-wheel Drive

Posted on May 9, 2018 by hessd

As I get older, I think of all-wheel drive (AWD) as increasingly important to me. [1] And I’m not thinking about driving. I am thinking about how best to live my life. When I wrote about this before, I imagined … Continue reading →

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