Touching on Beginnings

OMGoodness… four posts in a single day! Think of it as catching up on ideas that have been waiting for me while I finished the last days of the semester. There’ll be another dry spell coming up while I make my way back to Minnesota for twelve short weeks of summer: papers to write, books to read, and new course material to plan. … but I’ll do all that as the boat drifts from one end to the other of lake Bemidji, so who could complain?!

This blog began as a platform for considerations of age, aging, and the strength of women moving through the second half of life. It was a noble beginning even if misconceived in the notion of what a blog is and does best. Though circumstances soon turned the focus of my writing toward Tommi and her deployment to Iraq, it is to the topic of age and aging that I return as I end the semester in anticipation of a bit of time away. I share with you here a handful of interesting ideas I picked up along the way as topics deserving of a write. Enjoy!

From Yahoo Finance, January 24, 2005: Contrary to conventional wisdom, life gets better with age. “When you’re in your 20s, 30s, and eve 40s, it’s common for women to put their lives under a microscope and feel like they’re not living up to their full potential in terms of work, home, and family,” said Carrie McCament, senior director for Frank About Women. “By the time she reaches her 50x, she’s really hit her stride. She is happy, she is confident, and she is financially astute.” In a survey of 1155 women ages 20 to 97, only 42 percent of the women in their twenties reported themselves to be “extremely” or “very satisfied” with their overall wellness. It rises to 46 percent for women in their fifties, and to 50 percent for women in their sixties. When women grow older than 70, the percentage jumps to a whopping 66 percent.

Books:
For My Next Act, Women Scripting Life After Fifty (Baar, 2004)
Fifty Celebrate Fifty (Collins, 2002)
How to Plan a Great Second Life (Burgett, 2003)

Broadcast media can convey a false sense of what women of age look like. More than wise and gracious, there is confidence, strength, tenacious determination, accomplishment, and depth. Age is fascinating, even mysterious.

Women blogging with whom to consider the journey through the second half:
Elaine at Kalilily Time
Kat at Keep the Coffee Coming
Millie at My Mom’s Blog
Ronni at Times Goes By
and others you’ll find at The Ageless Project