The Move

To my loyal blog readers:

I am sorry to be so tardy with a new post, but I moved two weeks ago today, and 26.5 miles away.

The move went about as perfectly as it could, but the settling in has been complicated by two things: the crazy weather here in the Chicago area, and the back pain I sustained while packing, then carrying stuff down downstairs and upstairs.

Again, and again, and again.

Guess I ain't as young as I used to be, eh? Ah, well, if nothing else, pain does humble one, especially making us grateful for those moments, sometimes seconds, when it seems to moderate. Gratitude being another necessary ingredient of aging.

And so I am gratefully on the mend, and will be posting next week about the poet Mary Oliver, who died last week.

2019: The Purpose-Driven Year

Imagine the thrill of reading the following editorial in the Chicago Tribune’s New Year’s Day edition: 

“Boomers, remember your commitment. There's still time to save the world.”

Talk about a way to start 2019. It’s almost as if the editors follow my blog, especially given this particular sentence: “Find a purpose beyond yourself.”

On the other hand, maybe they read about the summer workshop I offered at The Newberry Library in Chicago: “The Purpose of Aging: Aging with Purpose.”

Here’s that description, slightly amended to reflect how that workshop and the response to it inspired my upcoming series of lectures and forthcoming book:

The news is no longer new: The Boomer Generation—those between the ages of 54 and 72—has changed the way we age. Not only are Boomers living longer than any previous generation, but are doing so in better health and more productively. 

This longevity bonus—or “Gift of Years,” as author Joan Chittister calls it—may even benefit those of us born before the Boomers, and certainly after.

In Carol’s lectures, workshops, and forthcoming book, she explores how we might use our gift of age with more intention, purpose, and meaning. In the process, she offers specific practices to help us create and manage this most challenging and rewarding life transition.

And part of what makes it both challenging and rewarding, in my humble opinion, is the choice to age with purpose. But how do find our purpose as we continue aging? And how does that particular purpose reward us?

Questions worth considering, eh?

Maybe the Trib piece could help answer them. Start here, with the opening paragraphs:

What’s next, baby boomers? You started turning 65 in 2011. Millions of you will continue to cross that threshold until 2030.

In your long-ago brash youth, you fashioned yourselves as wild-haired but deeply committed revolutionaries, America’s best hope to end poverty, prejudice and injustice. The times, they were a-changin’, for the better.

Sorry to say, you fell short in every category. You didn’t outperform the Greatest Generation (what’s greater than greatest?), which extinguished the Axis threat and created the modern world.

Now you’re signing up for Medicare and Social Security — rites of passage that make many of you cringe.

And to continue—which I highly recommend—click here:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-baby-boomers-65-20181129-story.html