Focus Group on Aging

In preparation for writing my second book, which will be on aging, I’m hoping to get feedback from people 50+ about their experiences of growing older. What are they thinking and feeling as they move through mid-life into their 60s, 70s, and beyond?

To that end, I’m offering a free program at the Center for Life & Learning at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago, on Wednesday, January 30, 2019 from 1:00 - 3:00 pm.

Here’s the official description from the Center’s website:

In addition to writing, Carol LaChapelle has conducted writing and journal writing workshops for the past thirty years. Her newest offering, The Purpose of Aging: Aging with Purpose, encourages people to continue creating their lives as they age.

Inspired by the positive response to the workshop, Carol is focusing her second book on the topic of aging with purpose. She envisions it as both resource and guide to this most challenging and rewarding life transition.

In preparation for writing the book, Carol is offering this free program at the Center for Life and Learning. It is an invitation to people fifty and beyond to share their experiences, thoughts, and feelings about aging. The conversation will explore what elements of mind, body, spirit, and story might help us move beyond midlife with more intention and purpose.

Carol LaChapelle is a Chicago-based writer, teacher, and the author of Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Stories. Her essays have appeared in America magazine, The Writing Group Book, and on www.nextavenue.org. She blogs about this “new” old age at forboomersandbeyonders.blogspot.com.

If you—or anyone you know—might want to attend, please click on the link, then select Free Lectures from the list. Once there, you can register.

http://www.fourthchurch.org/cll/programs.html

Also, if you know of other venues that might want to offer this program, please do contact me at madmoon55@hotmail.com or 773.981.2282.

Finally, I wish all my readers a meaningful and stress-free holiday, and all the best for 2019.

Style Stories

I’ve never been accused of being stylish. And, if for some reason I got close, it didn’t last long.

I credit my rather utilitarian approach to dressing up—or down, as the case may be—to many things, including being a fat kid; wearing uniforms in high school; and growing up female and Catholic in the ‘50s. Translation: no drawing attention to one’s looks, one’s body, else you become an occasion of sin for a young man.

Despite all that, once I graduated and started to make my way in the world, I made reasonably successful attempts to look attractive, especially after losing a ton of weight in my early 20s. These included wearing skirts, nylons, and high heels, and using make-up, if sparingly.

Then came the ‘60s, when hippie wear ruled and the women’s movement urged us to minimize body and maximize brain. Sounded good to me. I could read and write way better than I could coordinate an outfit or tie a scarf.

Besides, except for books, I hated to shop. And the more choices available—the racks and racks of shoes and dresses and accessories—the dizzier I got.

As I’ve aged, it’s gotten worse (or better?). I clothes shop only when I absolutely must, and whatever I buy and end up wearing (not always the same thing) must be washable, durable and affordable.

And if also fashionable, well, great.

All of which is context for why I so much enjoyed a recent essay on aging and fashion in the Washington Post, “Why I gave up on ‘flattering’ clothing,” by Alison Gary, the editor of the style blog Wardrobe Oxygen. 

Now her style story is not the same as mine, but I think many of my readers will appreciate her journey. Here are some excerpts:

When I turned 40, I started to slowly question my choices, easing up on some of those hard-and-fast rules. I worked so hard and for so long to fit my shape into the ideal of my Barbies in their Scotch tape-cinched Kleenex dresses. I was exhausted.

Some rules I broke out of necessity. After I gave birth to my daughter, I developed plantar fasciitis and couldn’t wear heels. I tried. Lord, I tried. It went away, and I went back to heels — and then developed a fallen arch. I have now embraced my collection of Birkenstocks, brogues, flats and funky sneakers.

[W]e are square pegs and a lot of fashion is round holes. We try to shove ourselves into those round holes with compression garments, uncomfortable shoes, and over-shopping thinking there’s that perfect something that will make us suddenly chic. Style comes from within you, not within your closet. You are fabulous just the way you are. You deserve clothing that doesn’t require so much effort and so little payback.

And finally:

The older I get, the better a relationship I have with my body. I no longer want to punish it for not fitting an ideal, but pamper it for how well it’s supported me all these years. 

To read the entire piece:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/10/30/why-i-gave-up-flattering-clothing/?utm_term=.3e05ac6bc94b