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By Bill November 9th, 2011
Sunday Carol and I went to the opera. The opera was Faust by Charles Gounod, sung in French. What does an opera have to do with caregiving? In this case, there is quite a lot. If you don’t know the old German legend, the subject of many works, Faust, old, accomplished, but bored with life sells his soul to the devil for youth and knowledge.
In Gounod’s version, he is sick, isolated, and lonely as well. He regains youth and vigor from Satan, seduces the girl, kills her brother in a swordfight, the girl gets pregnant, Faust abandons her, she goes crazy and kills the baby. Sentenced to death for the murder, Faust, realizing he still loves her, tries to persuade her to escape with him, but she is too crazy. She prays fervently, achieves …
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By Carol August 8th, 2011
Mid-Twentieth Century psychologists finally began to catch up with Shakespeare when they started to explore the idea that people over the age of 21 continue to develop psychologically and emotionally. We learned that just as children and adolescents grow and change, so do adults, at least until about age 50 or so. At that point, theorists—not having gained any great age themselves for the most part—decided that that nothing much happened in later life except, of course, the mental and physical changes that we can all observe in old folks. Even Shakespeare didn’t have a very positive vision of old age.
By the time these theorists did enter old age themselves, they—having developed as the elderly do—were no longer interested in talking about psychology or theories or–as in the case of Erik Erikson–anything at …
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By Carol August 2nd, 2011
Many of us who worked to change sexist and racist attitudes in our younger years are finding ourselves confronting another form of prejudice now as we reach retirement age. Ageism clouds perceptions of the elderly and causes us to fear growing older. We have been taught to equate great age with disability and loss of competence–period. We tend to view the elders we know who are “still” sharp and active as lucky exceptions to the rule.
Last winter on my excursions around town I began to notice that now and then a tailgater in an over-sized pickup truck would pull out into the oncoming traffic lane and roar around me screeching up to the next stop light– where I would overtake him. This is a rare though not unheard of driving experience, but after …
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By Carol June 21st, 2011
One of our readers Celina Jacobson recently shared these links to some fascinating TED videos on aging. Dad would have been especially interested in viewing Dan Buettner’s report on living to be at least 100.
10 Fascinating TED Talks on Aging
Many cultures today unfortunately dismiss the elderly because of the diseases and infirmities that settle in as time marches forward. But, as with all things, there exists a very precise, very unique science behind why everything — most especially biological matter — eventually ages and dies. Understanding the various corners behind this inevitable phenomenon marks the first step in combating many of the oft-debilitating conditions associated with growing old. Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes and more could eventually fade to nothing someday thanks to the painstaking research by innovative professionals. Although the following TED Talks …
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By Carol June 7th, 2011
Exploring the Gifts of Caregiving
Caregiving can be hard. Really, really hard. As Bill has said, it can feel a lot like rolling a boulder up a steep hill only to have it plunge back down to the bottom over and over again. I have also heard caregivers describe the job as an endless roller coaster ride or a long slog through a muddy marsh in the rain.
Part of what makes caregiving so challenging is that many of us start out knowing very little about the crucial medical, legal and social service domains that impact the elderly. When Bill and I were caregivers for my dad, Frank, we needed to master all sorts of new topics we truly did not want to know so much about–living wills and advance directives for example. The …
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