Ronnie once again this early morning in Nashville as I read your blog I find encouragement, comfort, a smile on my face. So many thoughts and opinions. I have been there and done that. I have been one that has always stayed very busy. Have wondered why over the last few years I just cannot do what I have in the past and really do not want to. Guess it is about time as age 70 just rolled past.

Tight deadlines on a project have kept me from my own daily show... reading TGB! Catching up w your recent posts is my treat to be redeemed next week. Meanwhile, I want to mention that your citing Lillian B. Rubin recently sent me to the library, where I read the book you named yet found another by her, Tangled Lives, superb. Thank you for introducing me (without even knowing) to this keeper (also on aging, among other themes).

Your posts are of the highest caliber. Thank you endlessly for the gift. HUGE efforts and a wealth of talent/skill/experience inform each post.

I will tell Jonah Goldberg that I do not use any of the products he mentioned and I love the Daily Show. So much for stereotyping this old gal.

Interesting topic and one I think on off and on. I don't feel any fear of dying. Some aprehension, of course, of walking into the unknown-- or floating... or not being... or whatever happens-- but it's also excitement. Like wow, then I will know as they all knew who have gone on before me. When my mother died, that was my big thought-- she has gone ahead and now she knows. All of my life, she was there for me and in my life but then she wasn't. Death is an amazing thing to consider.

I wrote about it recently regarding a dvd I watched, 'The Fountain,' where the whole topic was premature dying or trying to stop aging. People who want to live forever don't consider the consequences to the world if that could be arranged. We are over-populated now. What would it be like if people even lived another 300 years? What about jobs for the youth? What about babies? Reproducing would have to be severely limited or the whole thing would turn bad fast. Frankly, I think our current life span of up to 100 years for those who have good vitality, seems fairest to the world with the resources and life as we currently know it anyway.

The main fear I have where it comes to dying is simply what method will take me across? There is pain and debility attached to many but if I could do like my mother, stay fairly active, get what seemed like a normal flu, three days later just go to sleep and cross over in the night, well that'd be okay with me.

I do believe that one of the tasks of elder years is preparing ourselves spiritually for making that transition. Be comfortable with what we believe is over there and hopefully have those on the other side who will come for us at the time. I could write a lot on this topic but will stop here before this turns into its own blog.

My mother was very afraid of death. She saw death as the end of life, obliteration, with nothing after. As her caregiver, I was able to observe a change in attitude over the seven months she was bedridden here at home with hospice, not in pain, simply old - nintey-six. I think acceptance came with the visitors who would appear in a corner of the ceiling. At first, she resisted their existence. Then she began to socialize with them. The day before she passed, my father and her beloved grandmother were present, in spirit, visiting. Of course, she was the only one who could see them. She even talked to them. Their presence made her happy. Since we had become close, she did not hesitate to tell me, first with disbelief, then with joy. Sharing this experience confirmed my belief that the spirit lives on. (Hospice personnel tell me elderly people in nursing homes also have "visitors" but hesitate to report them for fear of ridicule.)

Somewhere during my 20th year I had a dream that I would not live to be 21. It was a strong and vivid dream and one that haunted me until my 21st Birthday. There were nights I would wake crying after dreaming of seeing myself dead. Yet, I made to 21 and recently turned 60.

How do I feel? Somedays, (as they say) are better than others. I am truly challenged by the difficulty in find employment as I do not have a college degree. When I started working it was not necessary for a secretary to have one. This, I often classify as a regret.

The good part of being 60 is the realization of the milestones crossed and knowing that you reached one that earns you the right to really choose what matters. Experience has taught us many lessons that flew by us. We learn to spend time doing what really matters and more importantly spending time with who really matters in our life.

I woke one morning and realized that I am truly happy that I came of age in the times I did. I find many of my age group feel the same way as well as carrying much concern for what our legacy will be for generations that follow.

I am glad that I had the experience of being able to start my work/career at a time when jobs were plentiful and that you truly worked your way up to earning promotions and more money. I am glad that I had the opportunity to gain experience at an entry level position and move on to a new job with more money - paid vacation - paid Holidays - bonus and sick leave. Up until ten years ago, this was the way it was as I had long-term employment until then.

Yet the common thread throughout my living has been family and friends, good books, good music and special times. When asked, I often say that my life has been ordinary with a few extraordinary moments.

And to close - my birthday goal has been the pursuit of happiness. Each day I mark clearly my moments of happiness. It is the little things often taken for granted and I realize now - this is the more important.

“Goldberg is just a dime-a-dozen pundit. Cranky rich people hire sharp-tongued and relatively uninformed young people all the time and put them on the mass media to badmouth the poor, spread bigotry, exalt mindless militarism, promote anti-intellectualism, and ensure that rightwing views come to predominate"

I found this comment on Jonah Goldberg that seems to fit. It is
near the end of an overheated blogo-debate between Goldberg (at National Review Online) and Dr. Juan Cole, the Middle East scholar from University of Michigan

I learn so much from this blog. At 58 I am an elder in many areas of my life, but here I feel like I'm learning at the feet of older, wiser friends, who have experienced much of life emotionally, spiritually and physically. It excites me to know that we continually learn more about ourselves, and that there will always be new "ah-ha" moments.

Glad to see you caught that L.A. Times Goldberg comment, 'cause I was eating a mid-afternoon brunchinner at a local restaurant after work, and nearly choked when I read his comment. Intended to write him, but not sure he's worth the effort.

'Course I'm one who believes it's important to keep speaking out, calling people on this ageist language and have written offenders up the ying yang -- just seems like it never ends. Glad to hear others saying they're taking action.

When I was a young girl, I regretfully believed I would not live to see the next (this) century, the life span being what it was at the time. Now that I have leaped over the magic year, the excitement of having done so is quickly extinguished every time I look around and see what kind of world this has become. I won't be upset if I don't see my next, 90th, birthday.

Thoughts of death used to make me shudder. For some years now, my attitude is take it or leave it. I know I'm not going to be Martha Graham or Picasso when I grow up.

My name is dylan I am 28 yrs old a awful fear has griped me and I cannot shake it it always happens late at night I start averging how long I have left and how fast the first 28yrs went I think about how long family members have left I try to beleave in heven and hell but its like nobody stoped to think what if there is nothing time is what I am most scared of. Seems like time keeps going faster and faster I have a great job and family but I don't know who to talk to about this it has been going on for about a year email me at [email protected]

Ronni, I found your blog because I'm starting one for geezers like myself that undertake active and even extreme sports. I was struck by one thing about your blog (besides being an interesting read). The most beautiful woman in the photos across the top is the one on the far right.

And Adam--you're wrong. I'm 63 and I surf nearly every day, race standup paddle boards for long distances, race vintage cars, ride mountain bikes in challenging terrain, windsurf, fish and hunt. I have more fun and do more active sports on a Tuesday than you probably do all week. Don't worry about the future, it takes care of itself. Worry about what you are doing today that makes your life as full and fun as it can be.

I found this site after searching for some time. At 42, and my dear Nanas death at 91 almost a year ago, I now feel like I am a walking hourglass with the sand slowly but constantly flowing downwards. I have a beautiful life with beautiful young children so I try to hide my depression from them but having an older husband who is also quite dramatic doesn’t help me to stay positive. Now I obsess about death all night until my tears and that mental release permits me to sleep.
I’ve refused to get on any anti depressants fearing the end result of weight gain would ultimately make me feel worse than my sundowner moods. I am regularly reminded that I was a gorgeous woman but finally now see age creeping on my body and my mind. I had fought so hard to stay natural and avoid medications or plastic surgery in my life. Anyway, thanks for listening and please share if you have any constructive feedback. And yes, I do believe in God, pray or at least say thank you for my blessings, but the torture that I feel within for the last year in particular makes me question everything about myself and my spirituality.