The Society of Elders Seniors are bonded together in an informal society through a shared history of life experiences. Even though we may not have met, we often smile as we pass on the street. We nod with respectful empathy when we see a fellow human being having difficulty walking, using a cane, or being pushed in a wheelchair. Those of us who are relatively able bodied understand that most of the physically challenged were like us once, and...

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I’m not talking about retirement as ending a work career. I’m talking about it as developing a different state of mind after withdrawing from the chaos in the work-a-day world and abandoning unrealized dreams of fame and fortune. The time before retirement is like planting a germinated seed that will develop roots and a stem capped with a bud. Retirement is the bud’s unfolding for its season of blooming. I’ve known people who struggled with...

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The first part of life has unique joys and senses of accomplishment. It’s filled with nonstop, evolving activities of education, finding a partner and raising a family, and building a career to support physical wants and needs. But the good times can be blunted by existential angst over differing sorts of competition and social, political, career and work-site discord and intrigues. During that time it’s tempting to occasionally fantasize...

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The divorce is final. After 22 years. We communicate amiably, care about, and want the best for each other. There was no problem dividing up assets and furniture. She got the teakettle and food processor; I got the coffeemaker and toaster. But we couldn’t reconcile our personal styles. Separation’s acute pain morphed into occasional longing for the unattainable fantasy. Anxious uncertainty evolved into lingering curiosity over how I’m going to...

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I’m sometimes called a Pollyanna because I’m incurably upbeat and believe that if I am true to myself and do what I think is right the future will take care of itself. Curious, I found Pollyanna, written by Eleanor H. Potter over a century ago, in our local library. Pollyanna was an eleven-year-old living in an orphanage after the death of her father, a minister. Her mother had died several years earlier. Someone discovered she had an Aunt...

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Before retirement age the internal glow of happiness can be independent of external circumstances. Despite the gloom and doom during the great 2007-09 economic recession, a Time Magazine survey found that 90% of Americans considered themselves optimistic about their health, finances and relationships. In one of my favorite stage dramas, according to conventional wisdom, forty-two-year old Shirley Valentine was happy. She is healthy, her...

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