Entries Tagged 'Age' ↓
August 4th, 2008 — Age, Books, Inspirational, Joy and happiness, Spirituality and God
I came across this interesting woman, Ruth Hamilton, yesterday, and now I can’t remember where. Perhaps you’ve looked at my various links and seen the link to the oldest blogger — well Ruth was even older — 109, imagine! And embracing new technology!
If you want to see and listen to a woman, born in 1898, who was the first women elected to the legislature in New Hampshire, who was one of the first women to have a radio talk show, who taught diction to movie stars, have fun perusing this site for more of her.
I’m always on the look out for people who lead interesting lives as they age — and for the ones that younger people gravitate toward because they have a zest for life that is contagious. If you play around at the site, you will find her eulogy and also information about a book she wrote as well as excerpts. It’s fun listening to her talk about God. For example, she asks God why she has lived so long, and all she hears is, “Shut up!”
Who do you know who might qualify as another Ruth? I’d love to have more real life stories of real men and women who are living vibrant lives as they get older.
Karin
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March 26th, 2008 — Age, Arts, Beauty, Inspiration and creativity, Joy and happiness
This article about Vivian Cherry, an almost 90 year old NY street photographer, is quite fascinating.
Be sure to click the accompanying interview with her. It shows pictures of her earlier life when she was dancing and many stills from her newly published book, Helluva Town: New York City in the 1940s and 50s
.
She says she is practicing taking photos, much the same as a dancer practices, so if she isn’t pleased with something, she was just practicing.
I’m always on the look out for women leading interesting lives. It’s something to think about.
Karin
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October 29th, 2007 — Age, Beauty, Hope, Inspiration and creativity
I only recently heard of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic 97 year old woman who rescued 2500 children in the Warsaw Ghetto from the gas chambers in 1942-3.
After getting the children out, she arranged ‘adoptions’ by non-Jewish families (I admire them too for the risks they took) to protect them, documenting their names in a jar which she buried, so that one day she could tell the children their real names.
She was captured and tortured, eventually escaping, but she did not betray what she had accomplished.
She was up for a Nobel Prize in 2007 which she did not win, but she won a far more nobler prize.
You can read more about her at this website.
Karin
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October 25th, 2007 — Age, Just thinking
I’m always on the lookout for role models, male or female, who are older than I am. But there’s something about a woman who is living an interesting life that does, in fact, interest me. My life has sure held some interest, and largely because I’ve sought it.
I recently read an article about an extreme grandma (that’s what her grandchildren called her). It reminded me of the grandmother in Hoodwinked
. Perhaps that’s where they got the title from.
I’m not sure I’m capable of being what I haven’t been, at least in some cases, or that I even have the desire to do some of the things.
But this, from my alma mater, was an inspiring story of Marilyn Mason who has taught organ at University of Michigan for 60 years — yes, 60! Additionally she has commissioned, I think it was more than 70 works for organ, because she feels present day relevancy is important. She doesn’t live in the past.
I found it interesting to listen to what her students say about her and her methods of teaching. She passes on what she knows. But she also puts as much time and energy into placing them in careers when they finish their schooling. She is more than a mentor; she is an advocate.
Be sure to listen to her play the organ on the video. In one place she remarks that every time one plays a piece, it is recreating it; it is necessarily different. She doesn’t rest on her laurels.
I found it interesting to see the images of her throughout her career.
Someone said about her that she lives her life full throttle. I work for that!
I tried to find out more about her. She was also honored at her 50 year anniversary. She has played on every continent except for Antarctica, and in about 50 countries. She is the first woman to play the organ at Westminster Abby. When you realize she took some time away for additional study, she truly is ageless.
Karin
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October 1st, 2007 — Age, Beauty, What the hell were they thinking
August 29th, 2007 — Age, Beauty, Cosmetics, Fashion, Hope, Just thinking
One of the things I like to do, though unconsciously, is people watch. Likely it is because I grew up in the fashion world, so I enjoy seeing what people wear and how they wear it. I am not critical, I am just looking with a critical eye to analyze, because I’ve been a buyer. At a young age I was buying not only for youth but for older men and women. I know too well the fleeting nature of fashion and of trying to stay ahead of the game to anticipate trends when shopping the markets to buy for the next season.
Stores in our area had a hard time sustaining themselves when they used northern buyers for our market. It just didn’t fly. Think hot, humid, and tropical and you would be right. What you’d wear in NYC or Chicago, you would likely not wear here. Also, the majority of us grew up somewhere else and came here for the space industry, so our fashion tends to be eclectic, but geared toward extreme heat.
The other day I was on a college campus with my 11 yo who had a function there. There were parents, as well as kids from 5th grade to 12th. Three college girls parted a swath amidst us. One was striking; one was average; one was OK. It was clear the striking one was leading the others and they deferred to her. They were an island to themselves. She was head of the pack, and she knew it. Confident. The rest of us of whatever age were invisible to them. I wondered what they would look like as parents. It was hard to imagine. But the day is coming whether they parent or not.
The next day I stood in a long line at the post office. Two young girls were in the front, one might have been an exchange student. One wore a dress; one wore shorts and a T. Both were modest and circumspect in their clothing. In front of me were two women older than I am. They both were invisible, in their demeanor and in their clothing. Behind me were women, invisible, looking hot and tired, none young. More or less patient in the line. I tried to imagine them the age of the young girls and failed. I tried to imagine what the young girls would look like at the age of these women or of me, or the ones behind me, how they might dress, and it was near impossible. I wondered what the hopes and dreams of the older women had been, and if they had achieved them. I wondered if the young girls would achieve theirs.
Next came me, fading into invisibility, maybe, wearing my uniform for the heat: shorts and a T. And don’t forget I wore a lot of bracelets before they came back in style. Or I set the style, LOL. I am fashionable, but not a fashion plate. And I’m recycling things I loved from years gone by.
It reminded me of Dylan Thomas:
Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Or Robert Frost’s
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
I don’t think of myself as old, though to some I might be, and there are moments when I definitely look older than I would like to. I don’t intend to go quietly. I hope never to be invisible. I’ve got a long ways to go before I end up there. Maybe I’ll be like the 107 yo woman blogger and still be blogging. That would be something! But I hope it is an interesting ride. And she is clearly not invisible.
Someone I know once said to me that she couldn’t wait until she was old enough not to care what she looked like. How old is that, pray tell? I’ll never forget the striking much older woman on the arm of a younger man in Paris, her head scarf twisted into a flower by her ear. High heels and tasteful makeup. I have something to aim for, but skip the heels!
How about you? do you think of yourself as invisible, or do you know better?
Karin
Here it is in full:
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Poem lyrics of Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there’s some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
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May 8th, 2007 — Age, Inspiration and creativity, Just thinking, Quotations
One of my chief concerns when I pulled the rip cord was whether I’d miss the excitement, whether my new life would be a paler version of the one I’d led before. This is reinvention worry # 1:…it’s too easy to concentrate on what you’re giving up, and hard to have faith in what is coming your way. Susan Crandell, former editor-in-chief of More magazine, now a freelance writer.
It takes courage to reinvent a life.
I know someone who left one job to take another in the same career. This job didn’t pan out as expected, as blame was put on this person’s shoulders that really belonged to the corporation’s choice of location. Meanwhile immediate management was sucking the life out of this person so as to pass the buck from himself. This was a lowest of the low time in my friend’s life. Fast forward, my friend is now ensconced in the same career with another corporation and winning accolades and rewards. If bad management had been allowed to take away self-esteem, how criminal that would have been.
But nothing is written in stone. We don’t have to stay in an unfulfilling career, if we open ourselves to changes, knowing we can always change again. We can live long enough to have several careers — or even have times when career takes a back page, such as when we are raising children. And there’s nothing wrong with working, then going home and having a life, not being so high powered that we have no down time, but take worries with us all hours of the day. I have BTDT.
Can we love the rhythm of our life and not chafe at red lights or too slow a check out line?
What do you do to slow your life down, if you feel it is moving too fast or you are too stressed? Sometimes I read a book or see a movie or talk to a friend or get alone by myself and away from the fray.
Karin
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April 27th, 2007 — Age, Inspiration and creativity, Memory and forgetting
Nola is about to graduate college at age 95. She sounds like a pip!
I want to be like her when I grow up.
When you consider how much negative news there is, it is refreshing to have something so upbeat. Maybe it won’t be bad to be 95, ya think?
You go, gal!
Karin
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March 9th, 2007 — Age, Just thinking
One of my girls got in the car crying yesterday. Mean girls. Mean girls. Don’t know if she contributed some or not, but she is sweetly sensitive which sometimes makes you a target.
She went off to school this morning hoping there wouldn’t be a repeat.
I told her about college girl’s forays into mean girl territory when she was in high school and junior high. I told her some of what I had faced. I told her about books that have been written about this phenomena.
And college girl came home last night for spring break so she talked to her too.
And I asked her if there was anything she wanted me to do. Did she want me to talk to the teacher, etc?
Meantime we had one of her friends over for play and dinner, which helped a lot. I encouraged her not to say too much as it sometimes comes back to haunt you. But this other friend said that mean girl had been really nice until she got with a couple of other girls.
Well, you know how you don’t think of things to say in the moment, but maybe years later.
I got to laughing with college girl and her, and I said, laughing, you should have asked her if she had a kleenex.
Why? said younger girl.
I said, because then you could say because she was being a snot!
My bad.
So far as I know, this is original to me. When telling a friend and her 20ish daughter, her daughter thought it was funny and clever.
I also told my girl not to really say this, but if she thought it in her mind, it might help her laugh about it some.
She mentioned that to me in the car this morning.
Two movies my girls love are Mean Girls 
and 13 Going On 30 
. We talked about them too.
They know the concept of mean girls, but it’s different bearing the brunt of it.
Have you had successes with overcoming mean girl syndrome?
Karin
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February 26th, 2007 — Age, Beauty, Fashion, Movies, Perfumes
I enjoyed watching the Oscars last night. Many of the presenters were cleverly funny. Robert Downey, Jr’s, aside about himself was wonderfully drole.
So many of the dresses were beautiful. I didn’t care for the big bow on Nicole Kidman, but the color was radiant.
Helen Mirren looked divine. Such a beautiful dress.
Naomi Watts was spectacular in that shade of yellow.
Reese Witherspoon’s dress looked black on camera, but in the paper’s picture this morning it looked the deep purple that it was.
No big fashion faux pax that I saw like the swan from a few year’s back or the ballerina…but Meryl Streep could take better advantage of herself, and Celine Dion, with her divine voice, needs a fashion consultant.
I’d like to see the jewelry in more detail. Up close and personal would be fun. It would mean that I was there…
Will Smith’s son is too adorable for words.
Some of the men were stunning, as always.
Jack N looked like he was becoming Marlon Brando in his later years. He was good natured, though, which is a little scary coming from Jack.
Peter O’Toole, poor man, I wish he’d won. Meantime, I hope he’s got a couple more powerhouse performances still to give us.
The skit with Jack Black’s was fun. I didn’t know he could belt a song out.
I thought it was funny when Ellen passed her supposed script to Scorsese…and later when Clint Eastwood told her he was expecting a copy of her script too.
There are always some surprises in the awards. It has to be disappointing not to win, but it should not eclipse the fact of being there.
Hmmmmm, come to think of it, I’d like to know what perfumes they were wearing.
Oh, and let’s not forget the dancers.
Karin
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