Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Her Fruits of Their Labor







HER FRUITS OF THEIR LABOR


I decided to get brave and ask Sarah what I wondered about. 

She is in her late 80's and very active, very interested in life & people.
 She travels occasionally. She occasionally has surgery or a patch here or there to keep going.
She keeps her hair cut short and straight. Lipstick? Yes. 
Eye make-up? No.
Clever well-to-do clothes? Yes.
 Happy attitude? Yes.
 Perfect “Hollywood fake” teeth? No.
 Nice car? Of course! 
She breaks a bone now and then, but aces the recovery.

What I wondered about was what she was thinking about old age.
So I asked.
“Sarah, I write a little blog on aging.  May I ask you something I've been wondering about?”
“Of course.”
“What do YOU think is the very nicest thing about this stage of life?”

Without hesitation she said with enthusiasm, “Oh I love it that I am well off and don't have to budget. If I want something, I can just go buy it. The money is in the bank because we worked hard and saved. Roland always made good money and we managed it well. My brother was in high finance and he advised us well. Free. He never charged us for his advice. It wasn't always like this, and so I am enjoying the fruits of our labor. Roland left me well off when he died. I love to shop, but I actually have everything I need! I seldom buy anything, but I can if I want and I can buy the very best. My needs are all taken care of. I still love to shop even if I buy nothing.”

See? We become more and more different from one another the longer we live.  

Our experiences in life guarantee we will be different from one another.

Aging produces such interesting people!

You won't find any boring cookie-cutter-people on the twilight zone of life where I have landed, not having died young.


Surprised by Sarah's answer,
Riverwatch










Monday, February 4, 2013

Who's reading books?



More women, 81 percent, read books, compared to 70 percent of men, and the 
number of readers declines as people age
The trend toward e-books impacted libraries, which stocked and loaned more e-books.

Pew Research Center
according to Reuters





As you probably know, I have a goal to read 52 books this

year. 

Wow.  Can I tell I am old!  


Some reader suggested a way to modify that goal without 

getting rid of the numbers!  I listened!  Reading 52 books 

doesn't mean sitting down (in pain) and actually plowing

 through 52 books with 300 pages apiece!!!!! 


Choose cooking books!   

Choose children's books!  

Choose picture books!


I picked up a little book on "Slang" and that was interesting!

I don't remember anything I read in that little old book,

but I do remember the feeling:  that slang sure

changes over time.  Learned something!


I  have also become a fan of "scanning".  Read the first part, 

scan the middle part and read the last part.  Does that count?


Read the cliff notes.  Pretend I am back in high school!


Another little tip:  make no effort to remember what you read!


Count the little 30 page "article" on nursing that you bought 

on line and had to read for credit towards your nursing 

license.


Listen to the book on tape.  Is that reading?


Read a book I've already read.  Does that count?


***Accept this little lesson in goal setting as 

education .........move on..........

and stop ruining the joy of reading!!    

Modifying and "up-grading" goals as we proceed is wise.  
Be careful making a goal next year to read 52 books!



Still looking for ways to make it count,
Riverwatch