My old friend recently moved to an elegant suburban retirement home. Her luxurious housing complex is just a short train ride from Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Many retired professors live there – from Harvard, MIT, and Wellesley, even international residents from as far away as Chile. You’d have to be in the upper brackets to afford the place. They love their spacious open-plan apartments surrounded by gardens. A concert hall hosts well-known professional musicians. Residents can order vegan, gluten free meals, and use the full gym and pool, (in fact more than one pool,). They insist that the staff of immigrant women who serve them are “so lovely.”
My friend described how residents lecture each other on their own specialties: “The political economy of Lichtenstein”, “Electronic Music’s Future”, “Critical Race Theory and Crime”, even “African American history”, though no African Americans live there. However, the administration plans a diversity initiative to recruit folks like that famous professor on Public TV, who was arrested for breaking into his own house.
My friend finds the contentious disputes amusing. Those elderly professors love to argue. They must miss the verbal jousting on their college campuses. The art history specialist objected to the framed prints by great white men lining the hallways. She managed to replace most of them with work by women artists. The public health professor demanded that everyone be screened for Covid, but after heated debates, she lost to the administration that wouldn’t spend the extra cash. Still feisty, many residents, even those using walkers and wheelchairs, held a protest outside the local bank demanding they divest their fossil fuel stocks, (though I suspect many profited from those same stocks).
After visiting, I considered putting my name on the very long waiting list, but when I checked with my financial advisor, she said, “forget it—you could never afford it.” What options are there for middle income people like me? I’d love to enter a community of active, thoughtful seniors in such a utopian setting, but for those of us too poor to afford the monthly stipend and the large buy in price, (which doesn’t go to one’s descendants), I guess we’re stuck in our own homes – if we’re lucky enough to have one. We’ll go on repairing the leaky roof, shoveling the snow, and carting out the trash for as long as we’re upright. Since exercise is good for you, maybe we’re the lucky ones.
Judith Beth Cohen lives in undisclosed location decidedly not in Cambridge, MA
