One of the great things about San Francisco is its history—a once rough harbor joint; an international, smoky city full of sailors and dreamers from around the world. It seemed built for mystery: between the colorful characters and smothering fog, it’s no accident that it’s the birthplace of noir. All that history, throughout San Francisco […]
Continue ReadingMy friend Nicky went to her regular dance aerobics class recently, and a new teacher had taken over the class. The instructor opened with: “I was told this is a group of mostly older adults so I should plan to take it a little easier on you.” Nicky said she and the other students looked […]
Continue ReadingOne piece of advice stands out if you are caring for a spouse with dementia: Acknowledge and accept that you can’t stay positive all of the time. Remember that to believe that you can maintain constant positivity is to deny your basic human dimensions. You can’t actually bypass your negative feelings, and if you try […]
Continue ReadingWhen California voters passed Proposition 64 last November, legalizing (with restriction) the cultivation, sale, and use of marijuana, it opened up a whole new cultural and economic world for the state. New businesses are flourishing, the tax base is expanded, and fewer people are being arrested for nonviolent crimes. But it also comes with misinformation […]
Continue ReadingThe experience of rebirth doesn’t come with an age limit. The earth is four and a half billion years old, but every spring it still bursts forth with fresh growth and new life after winter’s challenges and burdens. Your life isn’t simply a straight line that gets longer with each new year; it’s a fascinating […]
Continue ReadingCalifornia has always had an interesting and contradictory relationship with marijuana. The state is well known, of course, for Haight-Ashbury, the enclaves of Berkeley, the LA jazz scene, and other marijuana-heavy enterprises. But the drug has also been a great way to stall or even kill a promising movie career, and the fierce political backlash […]
Continue Reading“The tide in advance care planning has been moving away from forms and toward discussions,” reflects Dr. Rebecca Sudore, a geriatric specialist at UC San Francisco. After all, it’s impossible to narrow one’s life down to a set of questions on a form. End of life is unknowable until we are in the midst of […]
Continue Reading“I’ve always had a lot of friends,” said Madeleine, who has lived alone in her family home since her husband died of cancer a few years ago. “But I’ve slowly lost touch with most of my friends over the years. I made some new ones through a support group here in San Francisco while I […]
Continue ReadingThe job title of caregiver is both wonderfully accurate and incredibly imprecise. It’s accurate, of course, because it is decidedly literal: to give care. It describes, simply and exactly, the importance of the profession, and you understand instantly why so many people rely on it. To give care is to give a great gift. But […]
Continue ReadingA few years ago, we profiled MFK Fisher, one of America’s greatest writers, who spent the last decades of her peripatetic life in the Bay Area. She was once asked why she wrote so much about food and eating, and she responded: “The easiest answer is to say that, like most other humans, I am […]
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