I was recently talking to Marla, who always had interesting ideas about travel, and she told me that it took her forever to realize that San Francisco was right on the water. She didn’t mean this literally of course (though my initial surprise made her laugh). What she meant is that she had long taken […]
Continue ReadingWatching a movie in a group is an incredible, life-affirming way to make a solitary experience into something joyfully communal. We sit in a darkened room, processing a film through our own minds, but surrounded by people who are laughing or gasping or covering their eyes or crying. The shared experience changes the way you […]
Continue ReadingSuppose that someone asked you, “Where do you want to go home to tonight?” After they rule out an all-inclusive tropical island as an option, your response would likely be, “What do you mean, ‘Where do I want to go home to?’ I want to go home to my house.” It seems like a frivolous […]
Continue ReadingOn his drive home from his aging father’s house, Jessie felt heavy. His father Stan was still living in the family home, and it was always a joy for Jessie to visit the little bungalow he grew up in. This time was different, though. Although his father seemed well, Jessie noticed that over the course […]
Continue Reading“Travel,” Marla told me one day when we were sitting down to eat lunch in the annex of Institute on Aging, “is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” “Excuse me?” I asked. She explained that it was a quote by Mark Twain and a darn good one. I asked why she had brought it up, […]
Continue ReadingChristie was overwhelmed. Ever since her aging mother’s stroke six months ago, she had been her primary caregiver. Every day before work Christie would drive to her mother’s house to help her get out of bed and make her breakfast. On her lunch hour, Christie would dart across town to bring her mother lunch, eat […]
Continue ReadingIf you were to read the papers, or pick up any glossy travel mag with the Bay Area on the cover, or look at really any website, you’d think that there was no one in San Francisco over the age of 30. Indeed, you’d think the whole Bay Area was a “Millennial-Only Zone”. Now, this […]
Continue Reading“I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.” -Walt Whitman A strange and damaging tendency present in both individuals and societies is the assumption that because something is a certain way, and has been for a long time, it should be. That allows us to accept all manner of injustices and […]
Continue ReadingWhen I cry, I experience two different kinds of tears. Either my tears flow like a fountain, cycling and recycling the same stale thoughts and emotions. Or my tears flow like a river, free and uninhibited and going somewhere. The first kind of experience is painful and strained, and I end up feeling just as […]
Continue ReadingWhen Ruth’s husband died, she was 67. She had never been one to shy away from having a drink, but as the weeks and months went by, her family and friends seemed to notice her drinking more and more. When asked about it—always delicately—she laughed and said that she’d earned it. This seemed to be […]
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