Illustrator Nancy Carlson vividly remembers the spring day in 2007 when she simultaneously felt like “the happiest person in the world” while at the same time experiencing an odd sensation that everything was about to change. “My husband Barry was outs… Continue reading
The e-mail from her son’s kindergarten teacher left Kelly Papa shaking her head — and her fist. “I was infuriated; I screamed at my computer,” said Papa, corporate director of learning at Masonicare, a senior care and living nonprofit in Connecticut. “… Continue reading
People are unhappy; we live in a time of fragmentation and polarization. Our society is divided by rampant tribalism and fears of “the other,” marked by a distrust and anger of how groups are different, with the distress centering on politics. The Amer… Continue reading
(Editor’s Note: This story was previously published by PBS NewsHour.) Vijay Gupta is a Juilliard-trained violinist and MacArthur Genius Award winner who’s been using music as a way to connect with L.A.’s homeless and incarcerated and promote healing. A… Continue reading
My mother, Anne Pols, celebrated her 87th birthday in November. In that same month, she also made her art show debut, exhibiting a half-dozen freehand colored pencil drawings at the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook, N.Y. She and six other residents of… Continue reading
(The following is an excerpt from Winter’s Graces: The Surprising Gifts of Later Life) The relationship between age and contentment is well documented, though scientists are still seeking to better understand the reasons for that link. Long years of li… Continue reading
Creative inspiration can strike when it is least expected. For Richard Hitchler, co-founder and artistic director of Theatre 55, an early summer bike ride in 2018 past the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul, Minn. provided a light bulb moment as he w… Continue reading
Many years after he first started college, Todd Makler is back in school and happy to be there. Makler, 72, is currently a student in the Stanford Continuing Studies Program and takes courses every quarter at the Palo Alto university. A retired physici… Continue reading
Self-help books are the genre Americans love to hate. Readers spend $800 million on them a year, while others complain they’re nothing more than psychobabble, unhelpful to anyone at all. Whether The Secret, You Are a Badass or Who Moved My Cheese? real… Continue reading
Faye Kirtley doesn’t appreciate it when store clerks talk down to her and act as if “I don’t know what I’m doing,” she said. “It’s embarrassing, and I don’t know why they think it’s okay to treat an older person like that,” added the 88-year old reside… Continue reading