BoomSpeak

Pain Management

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hand on sore backSometimes when I wake up in the morning, my back hurts, right here, see? Where my hand is. I get up anyway, go downstairs and let Lilly the dog out, waiting inside the door for her and absent-mindedly pressing where it hurts. After she comes back in, I take my hand away from the pain long enough to pour my coffee and take a sip. Then, I notice my hand is back again pressing where it hurts.

My hands are now in dishwater, and I’m concentrating carefully on the comfort of warm water and the beautiful luster of my red glass dishes. My hands are now smoothing bed covers, and I’m careful to concentrate on brushing off all the dog hair and getting my pillows just right: red, pink, green and cream. I’m ready for my day, as they say, or at least I would be if it weren’t for this …

I realize I’m still clutching at myself, so I deliberately extend my right hand to draw back the curtains at my bedroom window. I make an effort to notice what’s going on outside. It’s a sunny day, so I say aloud, as my mother used to do, “It would be stupid to let this day go to waste.”

Oh dear! My mother was a wonderful woman, but do I think words like “stupid” and “waste” are going to help me now? I’ve got to stop this pain thing. It’s depressing.

Salvation comes in the warmth of early afternoon. I’m on the walking path next to the river. An impromptu band has coalesced in the open area next to the playground equipment, where kids are swinging and sliding and calling to each other.

A guitar goes plink plunk. A recorder ripples. I discover I’m moving along in time with the music, almost as fast as the breeze, legs pumping, arms free. Lilly on her lengthy leash is keeping an eye out for stupid squirrels. Great squirrel hunter, is my Silly Lilly–though she’s not once ever caught one. The children’s laughter now sounds like lace. The drum is becoming part of me.

I look up from under the broad brim of my sun hat and there’s a green tree against a blue sky with white clouds. And the river,… the river is like a liquid soul.

And the pain is gone.

Katharine Valentino is from Eugene, Oregon

 

 

 

Puffy?

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woman sleeping on cloudYeah, puffy. You want to make a big deal out of it? No, not me. I was just thinking that it’s an interesting name for a mattress and décor company.

Then I was intrigued by the fact that Puffy just released results from their national sleep survey.
They surveyed over 4,400 adults from all 50 American states, asking them how they were sleeping in the time of Covid.

Surprisingly to me, 74% said they preferred working remotely from home. But, they were going to bed later and less satisfied with the sleep quality. I guess you could say they are a bit stressed out. Millennials have it the worst, as 62% of those surveyed reported higher stress levels while working remotely.

It seems that how you work remotely has a lot to do with your stress level. Baby boomers were working out of home offices, which most likely reflects the fact that they have larger homes. 54% of the boomers surveyed fell into that category, while only 20% of the Gen Z and millennials had designated office spaces. Presumably, the rest were working at the breakfast bar, dining room table or the bedroom. Home office spaces translated into lower levels of stress according to the survey.

Not surprising, 79% of boomers preferred working from home. Well yeah! They have fancy pants home offices. 68% said that their productivity level was higher than when they were in offices.

Only 20% of millennials had a home office and 42% were working in their bedrooms. 62% were feeling more work stress than they did before the lockdown. Keep in mind that these are the “digitally-native” workers who grew up with computers but are struggling with the adjustment. Housemates, young children and limited space are all factors in their dissatisfaction with work-at-home circumstances.

Bottom line, Puffy’s data suggests that sleep satisfaction across all demographics has nosedived. Older adults in particular, while transitioning well to remote work, are not happy with their sleep. Only 27% of those over age 55 were satisfied. Gen Z’ers reported the highest satisfaction (48%) and that appears to correlate with the redecorating they’ve done during the lockdown.

Aha! I think I get it now. Puffy sells bedding and bedroom décor. Better décor — better sleep! We’ll all sleep better now that we know their secret.

Jay Harrison is a graphic designer and writer whose work can be seen at DesignConcept. His mystery novel, Head Above Water, is available on Amazon and Kindle. You can also visit his author page here.

Slacker

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bare feet in bedAs my retirement journey evolves, I don’t think aging badass describes me well, unlike The Widow Badass, who definitely owns it and wins the prize for best blog name ever. And then there’s cannabis. I like it and continue to use it recreationally and medicinally but not as much as I expected. It doesn’t seem worthy of such prominent placement.

I’ve come to embrace the term slacker, as in a person who avoids work. Because I am definitely done with that pesky job thing. I changed the tagline to read, “The continuing adventures of a full-time slacker.”

Sounded great to me, but as I started to share the news with you, I looked up the definition, which described people who shirk obligation, particularly military service. Well, that would not be me! Perhaps I am being too literal, but I deleted that tagline and left the space blank. Is blank best?

As for retirement, I seem to have landed in a happy place devoid of ambition. I do what needs to be done around the house and that sort of thing, but the rest of my energy is focused on activities that give me pleasure. I see myself as the face of resistance to over-engineering retirement, which isn’t a contest to see who accomplishes the most.

In retirement, there are no performance reviews.

I updated my About Me profile to read:

My full-time job is to take care of myself, be kind to others, enjoy simple pleasures and indulge in creative pursuits. I like to play golf, walk, swim, cook, read, write, watch TV, listen to music, make art and grow cannabis.

That pretty much sums it up. Maybe I don’t need a tagline.

Donna Pekar is an aging badass (for real) who lives in California and writes Retirement Confidential.

 

What Guilt?

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phonograph needleI was reading about retirement the other day. Could mean I’ve been thinking about it. Although now that I’ve read what some people say about retiring, it’s tweaked my contrarian side. One particular writer advised that by retiring, I would be giving a younger person an opportunity to take on more responsibility. Okay, that’s fine by me. They continued by adding that the younger person would get a promotion and make more money. That’s fine as well. Therefore, she/he concluded, retirement is really an act of generosity, so don’t feel guilty about it.

Guilty!! My reaction? Hit the play button below.

What the hell did he/she just say? Don’t feel guilty about retiring? Nuts to that. Guilt is the last thing I would feel on the way out the door. I’ve been working since I was 12 years old. Helping out in Dad’s business, working summers to pay for college, working in several careers and then co-founding a business that’s about to start its 35th year.

I get that there will be a period of adjustment when the time comes. That’s why I’ve decided to ease out the door by remaining a consultant for a few years. But the pressure to start the day by checking client emails and formulating a work plan will be over. No more reacting to weekend work requests. It will be more about what I want to do that day and having a more relaxed attitude about what needs to get done versus what I’d like to do. The weekdays should melt into the weekend, so that eventually, I hope, I can’t tell the difference.

My Type A personality is not going to give way overnight, but I’m hoping some Type B traits will leach in somehow. At the very least, I’m hoping to have fewer and less frequent To Do lists. Then again, if you have a lot of free time on your hands, a To Do list might be just the ticket.

Guilt? I don’t think so. Paid my dues, put in my time. Soon, most of the time will be mine.

Jay Harrison is a graphic designer and writer whose work can be seen at DesignConcept. His mystery novel, Head Above Water, is available on Amazon and Kindle. You can also visit his author page here.

Letters

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alphabet lettersMy brother recently sent me some letters I wrote to him in the 1980s. Back then I wrote letters all the time – to my parents, other siblings, friends. It was what people did, in addition to periodic long-distance phone calls on our land lines. Even my children, both Millennials, wrote me letters during their college years, but those letters gradually evolved into emails. Today, in the midst of their busy adult lives, we text, call, or FaceTime more often than we email.

I don’t want to be an elder who laments the better ways of the old days. Our current methods allow immediate contact, and sometimes a brief exchange of texts is all we need to be in touch. But as Simon Garfield asked in his 2013 book “To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing,” how will we be able to tell our history without letters?

As I read over the letters my brother sent, I see how rich my relationship was with my two year-old son, a bond that continues to this day. I also see how I was in denial about the depth of my husband’s issues underlying his habit of consuming too much alcohol away from home. My brother expressed concern and suggested he seek counseling; I told him we had it under control and he shouldn’t judge my husband. How wrong I was in that. So I gained something from rereading those letters – I could reexperience so much good and also learn something about myself that my memories have hidden.

One thing that is better now – we are more aware and open about addiction and mental health challenges and we are more fluent in the language of emotions. We can talk things through better, whether in person or other means. We can access resources and information over the internet, and more easily gain a sense that we are not alone in whatever issues we face. I wish I had had those resources back then.

I treasure the letters I wrote back then because they help me understand my history, but I don’t mourn the loss of the letter writing habit. However, this past summer when my 10 year-old grandson was at sleepover camp for the first time, I wrote him weekly letters, perhaps the only ones he’ll ever receive. Maybe I’ll continue that habit with him and his younger brother.

Lee Stevens is an aging Conjuress who spins magic with words and yarn in Hendersonville, North Carolina

 

FAKE!

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fish pretending to be sharkIt would be one thing if baby boomers read things on the internet and recognized them as fake news, but you have to blame certain politicians for turning everything they don’t want to hear into fake news.

Now for some true news. Guess who the biggest fake news spreaders are? Give up? Baby boomers, my friends, are fertilizing the infosphere with erroneous information at a rate greater than any other demographic. Sad but true, older Americans are more likely to share articles from fake news domains and disreputable sources. Researchers looking at 2016 Facebook posts found little sharing of fake articles excepting persons over 65. The Social Media and Political Participation Lab and Princeton University, found that on average, users over 65 shared nearly seven times as many articles from fake news domains as the youngest age group did.

How do you explain the boomer propensity to share false articles? Perhaps they think naively believe if it shows up on Facebook it must be true. They must not have alternative news sources by which they could fact check what they are reading in order to become more discerning. Another theory is that they are just lazy. They read something that is what they want to believe and have no inclination to follow up to ascertain if it’s true. A third, and more ominous possibility, is that they know it’s false but just want to pass it off as true to piss people off. I could surmise what political affiliation some boomers might have if they fall into this last category, but that just might be fake news as well. Last, but not least, there’s the theory that boomers have just gotten dumber. The bullshit meter just doesn’t work like it used to, sad but too true.

Come on boomers! You’re better than this! You were part of the generation that marched for an end to the Vietnam war. You protested and marched for civil rights legislation. You are supposed to speak truth to power, not share lies and bullshit. There’s enough fakes (people and ideas) in our world right now. Boomers ought to take some pride in having enough sense not to spread falsity and make it worse.

And proud at least to not be as bad as the Russians.

Jay Harrison is a graphic designer and writer whose work can be seen at DesignConcept. His mystery novel, Head Above Water, is available on Amazon and Kindle. You can also visit his author page here.

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