PEOPLE GET HAPPIER AS THEY AGE

The title article intends to mean seniors get happier as they age. That is not a surprise to the seniors, nor even to some younger people watching them. Aging, if you are lucky enough to retain your brain functions and reasonable health is a wonderful place to be for anyone who has learned to get along with fewer material things. Those who bought houses long enough ago an have paid the mortgage off have a roof over their head. If they were like the little pig who built his house of bricks, they also put away some savings or investments to augment Social Security or pensions (if they were lucky enough to work for a place still paying them).

While many look on old age with dread, many know it is a great time of life, as they have learned how to avoid or cope with stress. Life is fairly fixed financially for most until the last Administration saw to it that the rich deserve more than the poor because they are capable of donating more to political campaigns, no doubt. Nevertheless, the age group no longer has to take achievement tests, determine a career, find a life partner, find a job, support a family, and all those things that younger people have to do.

To achieve that inner peace that comes with seniority, it means knowing when to worry or not, knowing what is reasonable to expect of yourself and not care what others expect of you, look on age as simply a number, take care of your mind and body--it is the only one with original parts you'll get. Within reason, have as much fun as is available to you; hurt no one; and dwell on only those things about which you can do something. In other words, 'Live long and prosper'...but only you can work on how that might happen. You have to start thinking about it when you are young because it takes money and energy.

REMEMBERING A CANCER VICTIM LOST TO THE MUSIC WORLD

Eva Cassidy was in her early thirties when cancer too her life. She was a wonderful talent and, fortunately recorded enough to leave enough of herself for us to enjoy forever. If you don't know her voice, tune in herehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGwDYBWEDSc.

If you want to know more about her, go to her website.

RIDICULOUS PEOPLE: RIDICULOUS IDEAS

Glenn Beck is not someone whom I have heard or seen directly other than clips shown by people, whom I respect, who have not presented him for his intelligent comments. After looking at his picture of the day on 8/3 and the 'interpretation' of Obama's 'body language', I can't believe the man dared to publish his name under the interpretation.
Since the lettering may be small, this is what is typed below the picture: 'Story by Thomas Lifson of the American Thinker
Obama's revealing body language
I am stunned that the official White House Blog published this picture and that it is in the public domain. The body language is most revealing. Sergeant Crowley, the sole class act in this trio, helps the handicapped Professor Gates down the stairs, while Barack Obama, heedless of the infirmities of his friend and fellow victim of self-defined racial profiling, strides ahead on his own. So who is compassionate? And who is so self-involved and arrogant that he is oblivious?'

Professor Gates had help, clearly, and the insensitive clod who wrote these negative words did not consider that President Obama may have courteously been getting the cameras off his disabled friend and onto himself. Writing about someone's intentions without ascertaining what they, in fact, may be why Glenn Beck is an entertainer and 'enlightener' rather than someone who should be taken seriously. He is as evil and mistaken (to my mind after I spent a bit of time reading his site) as Rush Limbaugh.

THINGS I'M HAPPY WILL REMAIN IN MY PAST

Many people have sent me things in email about all they miss from the past. I'm caught up with things I will NOT miss. Perhaps there are still cases of catching this louse from a toilet seat (if an infected person dropped one seconds before you were unfortunate enough to sit on the seat for it to transfer to you) or you caught it in the same way you would catch an STD...genital to genital contact.

Before any of the insecticides, you could count on house flies growing everywhere and seeing ribbons of gooey paper hanging with dead flies stuck all over. It was a nasty sight. With A/C we don't have to open so many windows and with kitchen sink disposals, we don't need garbage hanging around.

Not seeing 'snow' on the TV screen is a laudable improvement with cable.

Before the advent of antibiotics, mastoid surgery used to be a frequent surgery. Acute mastoiditis was common and the treatment is a mastoidectomy. You don't see those craters behind and below the ear in anyone under forty these days.

Eating vegetables became tolerable when planes and methods of delivering produce from all parts of the world in all seasons was possible. 'In the old days' we had only canned foods when fresh was not available. This preceded freezers when we only had ice boxes. Food was never terribly cold though it was certainly better than room temperature and one had to empty a drip tray as the ice melted.

Once, a family with children who wanted to see a movie had to go to a Drive-in theater. The windows had to be left open to accommodate hanging a speaker in your car. Since many theaters were put in land near swamps rather than residential areas, you could count on being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Netflix and Blockbuster made staying home with the kiddies playing with their toys in their part of the house or in bed and Mom and Dad able to watch in relative peace. If disturbed, they now have a pause button.

As I thought about all the things we put behind us, it makes the present look decidedly an improvement. We live longer in more comfort...at least those with jobs and health insurance...and recreational pursuits have no end.

LUCK IS A LADY

Is luck determined by the Law of Averages combined with randomization? Perhaps. However, people influence their own luck to a great extent by paying attention to preparing themselves for handling crisis and ability to make good choices.

My life experience, and as a psychotherapist for five decades, finds me somewhat at odds with the Wikopedia definition. I believe that luck, opportunity and preparation are partners (an oft quoted thought by many people).

Life is a gamble in which the house does not maintain ultimate control. Bad luck just might be a bill failing in the Legislature, such as a refusal for insurance to pay for an abortion when the medical term for a 'miscarriage' is abortion and might be totally necessary for a fetus who has died in utero before the time for Nature's delivery schedule. Non-medical political commentator, Chris Matthews, kept harping on this point tonight on MSNBC. He believes the government should take this position to pass the Health Insurance package. Would it not be a matter of bad luck to allow ignorant people to make life/death plans the law for others?

Luck to most people is not determined by Fate, though perhaps at times by chance. A God probably does not sit in the sky, in Heaven, standing on clouds, picking petals off daisies to decide who gets the good or bad luck. However, those who take care of their bodies by not abusing them, prepare themselves to earn a living, do not live on a financial edge unnecessarily, probably live with less stress...a good harbinger for a longer and happier life.

Given the song from Guys and Dolls, Luck be a Lady, Tonight, we might assume good luck is generally viewed to be feminine while bad luck remains masculine. Sounds about right considering what the men who have ruled the world have doled out to the rest of us.

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD; OR REPLACE

We are gradually moving towards the goal of being able to replace all our parts with the result being man will, in the future, If it can't be made made, we are settling for transplanted organs though many tissues are able to replaced with man-made material.

It used to be many years before we were able to believe that robots could be made to do what they do, that artificial intelligence can make talking to a computer in a robot seem pretty, frighteningly eerie. Will I ever live to see the day a person can have more replacement parts than original equipment? At the rate science is developing new stuff, who knows?

Science has come far. They have also finally realized that not all subjects are built the same way. I, for example, am an overweight, short woman. A knee that would on a man 6'4" tall would hardly fit me. My friends who are clearly more-up-to date think that it will be a good thing for our world and its inhabitants.

THE ACROPOLIS IN 1973 UNDER A FULL MOON

In the early 70's, on the night of a full moon, people were allowed to walk freely on top of the Acropolis without all the lights normally on. It was a spectacular experience to see the Parthenon, and other buildings without the modernization of spotlights. Acid rain, modern pollution, the shoes of millions of tourists over the years have necessitated this privilege stop. What made it even more moving was standing looking over the far wall, at the Plaka below. Roof gardens entertaining customers with music and dancing. Each, next to one another, with its own music gave up a cacophony of sound. One can readily see that a dark night, lit up on top, provides a totally different sight.










In order to see the marbles that decorated the Parthenon, one must still travel to the British Museum in London. Truthfully, they are well displayed but it is sad that they are not back in Greece where they belong. Perhaps one day the British government will see clear to return them to their rightful viewing source.