Fellow elderblogger, Kalilly, who writes at: https://www.kalilily.net/ has launched with several colleagues a petition to urge the Congressional Task Forces on Aging to devise and recommend funding for a plan to provide subsidies that enable remodeling of old outdated facilities and the constructions of new models of affordable senior housing that meet the needs of older adults for safety, comfort, and personal connections she notes.
"Survival is not Enough" "The crisis in affordable and humane housing for seniors is rapidly increasing. According to Bloomberg, “By 2034, the Census Bureau projects that the US will be home to more people over 65 than people under 18. Finding safe and affordable housing for this fast-growing segment of the population is becoming an urgent task, as the number of 65-and-over residents who are considered cost-burdened reached record highs in 2021, while federal housing subsidies only reached 36.5% of older households who were eligible.”
This certainly seems a pertinent issue with our aging population experiencing homelessness for so many as this nation has. You are invited to read, sign the petition if you find it to be of interest at https://www.change.org/ImproveSeniorHousing and share with others as well.
QUESTION: Will DJT follow law and order in which he says he believes to tell the truth under oath to the U.S. Select House Committee on Jan. 6th Hearings?
FWIW I've been blogging on other sites less frequently recently, if you've noticed. This is due to personal issues but I want you to know I still care about each of you.
DEMOCRACY
A nation of freedom-loving people we have plenty about which to be concerned though in my eighty-plus years this is one of the most dangerous ones. I feel compelled to continue expressing my thoughts since critical U.S. midterm elections are still in process, so be forewarned. Should you prefer to avoid reading more about these issues, you may prefer to skip directly to AGING PERCEPTIONS below.
Democracy preservation for the United States is of the utmost priority when selecting candidates for whom to vote in this midterm election IMHO. Given the gravity of the situation I cannot avoid continuing to focus some attention on what is at stake for the survival of our nation as the constitutional republic and democracy with the freedoms our forefathers gave to us, "if you can keep it."
I wanted this blog to be politically nonpartisan when I began in 2006, but am dedicated to upholding our constitutional republic's democracy I have observed being under attack since 2016. I cannot remain silent since a once respectable political party became subverted into undermining our government by any means possible with lies regarding the results of our election process, even inciting violence in an effort to establish an autocratic system with a one-man ruler.
Obviously, by the actions of those aligned with the violent instigating political party and even the words of the leader they claim to follow, law and order is not observed or respected and won't be in the future for anyone whose views differ from theirs.
Individual rights and freedoms are being seriously threatened by that party. Unfortunately, many citizens have and still do take our rights and freedoms for granted, assuming we'll always have them or can easily regain them if taken from us no matter what we do or don't do. Nothing could be further from the truth as they can be whittled away little by little by various politicized government branches by far too many of that party's candidates such as those recent women's rights were taken away.
Government office appointments in the future and Congressional action by that party will jeopardize many citizen rights including healthcare, Medicare and Social Security in our richest of all nations -- our U.S. nation that already falls well below the offerings reported in the rankings of other nations in the democratic western world.
Federal, state, local elections, judges and appointees matter and we the people with our votes can determine what kind of country in which we and future generations live.
I know some of my words resonate with many in the U.S. and some others elsewhere in the world. I don't presume to know what if any meaningful impact occurs on any U.S. voter with what I write, but I must make the effort on my limited platform.
AGEING PERCEPTIONS OVER 90
We're fortunate whatever our older age to have individuals who have enriched our lives. The reality is that the older we become the fewer remain who are still living. That's certainly been true in my life as I've previously shared here. Celebrating my recent birthday many memories cross my mind.
I recall with loving thoughts the year my young teen son asked me to stay in the other room because he was going to undertake his first solo baking effort without supervision. He baked me a birthday cake from scratch which was quite successful when all was said and done -- probably the best cake, commercial or otherwise, I ever had made for me!
There have certainly been other significant family birthday occasions and some with co-workers as well as personal friends. Often lovely flowers my husband brought with memorable gifts, including unexpectedly unique ones from my daughter. Across the miles now I am not forgotten as grandchildren join my celebration. Far too many other family members and friends exist only in my memory.
This year, I unexpectedly was delighted to share some of my much younger neighbors delicious chocolaty chocolate October birthday cake.
Author, blogger, Katherine Esty recently celebrated her 88th birthday which caused her to think about what life might be like at 90 or older as she edges closer to that decade. She shares "What It's Like To Be Over 90" HEREin interviews with some she knows that age.
Wellness and disability issues are discussed coupled with a view revealing whatever one's physical condition an attitude exists of believing we're "Lucky To Be Alive" as younger old folks have said, too.
A probably 95 year old woman now I know is continuing to thrive living independently in her single family home following her husband's death some years ago. "C" as I'll refer to her continued her career as a hairdresser after she left the aerospace industry in an earlier decade until Covid caused the hair salon to close when she was age 93. Even then she often continued helping clients where they lived including shopping for them.
"C" had begun experiencing some challenges standing for long periods and began using a walker in some situations outside the beauty salon. She has some medical problems but continues to cope. She's always been in an upbeat mood in our occasional phone conversations to catch up on our lives, or when she stopped by the house a year or so ago.
Most recently, "C" speaks of selling her home and moving as one of her daughters may from her state to northern California where more of their immediate family is now living.
I appreciate learning about other individuals lives as they travel along the ageing highway, especially those living independently in their homes without benefit of community care facilities offerings. My situation presents challenges quite different from that provided in long term care even at the independent living level.
Having no family or even immediate close friends nearby can present additional complications as I experience which doesn't lessen the older one becomes. I have characterized my decision to choose this way of living my sunset years as "The Grand Experiment". Experiments outcomes can become unpredictable.
Perhaps you'll find Katherine Esty's blog at the link provided above of interest as she writes from her long term continuing care community. Certainly the views and attitudes of her fellow residents reflect the lives they lead and their experiences. I wonder if or how they might differ from those living in other than in long term continuing care settings?
Everyone living who survives many years with the obstacles they may have encountered in their path sprinkled among the joy and happiness they've had can consider themselves fortunate. Some of those obstacles may be of the person's own making caused by words said or unsaid, actions taken or lack of action. Then there are other complications that occur beyond the person's influence or control. Somehow the individual has bypassed the obstacle in some fashion, overcome, or found a way to live with the result.
Whatever the situation celebrating each birthday is well-deserved the older we become, especially when we consider the alternative.
"HERE'S TO LIFE" -- Shirley Horn with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra, 1993
(That emotionally moving singular performance was originally slated to be embedded here but then became unavailable for use in that manner.)
^ ^ ^
JEAN
I'm not much in the mood for writing since I've learned what I really didn't want to know when I finally mustered the courage to conduct an internet search of a friend's name. The closest of my undergraduate college friends with whom we've kept in contact with each other all these years has died.
Jean has been writing she wanted to talk with me but preferred to call, so I waited for her to write a message advising that she was feeling up to talking and when she would phone. Her last email message to me included her saying she felt "like a slug." Now, I've discovered that two weeks later she died.
In the days before the internet, I might never have known about the death of some friends since family doesn't always make contact to convey that information. Most close friends long term have lived many miles distant from me for most of our years during our adult lives. Seldom, if ever, did we even see each other and in most instances hadn't even met each other's now adult children.
This close adult life-long friend, Jean, is the third in the past decade I've learned has died but only after I finally searched their name on the internet. I was hesitant about checking for the second person a few years later after that first loss experience. Though a letter and phone calls had elicited no response, I delayed further internet checking before finally searching only to once more find the result that I didn't want.
So, on this third occasion I finally acquired the courage to search a name once again on the internet. The screen instantly appeared and there Jean was, smiling directly at me, her face and name next to a column titled "Obituary".
I'm so glad I took a side trip stop-over to visit her and her husband as she urged I do on my flight home from visiting with my family several years ago. I wish now I had stayed longer. We could have enjoyed so much more time together. Now, there are only the memories. So much I could write, but as I said in the beginning, right now I just can't bring myself to immerse deeper into sorrow's moody pool. I will miss her!
In the decade before this current one when my friends' deaths began becoming more prevalent, some adult children never contacted me then, either, about their parent's death. One did, but not until a daughter wrote a year later, and another when a son wrote several months later.
One husband phoned me across the continent quite soon after his wife's death, then broke down on the phone and it was all I could do to emotionally keep it together as I felt I must for him. Days later the adult daughter called and after determinedly thinking I must keep my emotions under control for her, I could not.
I don't know why with other friends who died I never heard from family, especially in one specific instance. But I can appreciate simple contact delays as I guess there's really no longer any rush for any reason.
I know from my own experience there can be complications after a loved one dies, plus family members personal lives may have extra-demands, too. There's usually a rush of attention, followed by diminishing concern at some future point in time directed at the deceased's immediate family. Then that all ends and the remaining significant family member is truly alone.
All the grieving, adapting, coping can be overwhelming, giving way to the never-ending sense of loss for family and some friends. On reflection, after my husband's unexpected sudden death, I have been aware of not handling some matters in the manner which I intended or did so only part-way from what I expected to do.
Age differences between friends seem to matter little, especially since I've been older. I often think of one older-than-me long gone friend who wrote me once, "There are no friends like old friends." New friends, not always easily acquired when we're older, but who can become dear, rarely have the depth the history of time with shared life experiences and changes provides.
I note also, when an older friend dies there can be a different way of thinking about losing them than when a younger-than-me person departs. The older person is often said to have had a long life versus the younger one said to have died too young. When someone my same age dies, as was Jean, the loss resonates in a uniquely personal identification way.
I've written here before that I've found one of the most difficult aspects of ageing is the longer I live the more friends and family die before me, the fewer who remain living. My old friends and family once quite expansive in number are now down to less than I can count on one hand for the former, two hands for the latter. Memories can be cherished though they're not as rich as future personal interactions. No matter how many of those for whom I care deeply depart this earth, incorporating their loss into my life never becomes easier.
^. ^. ^ ^. ^. ^ ^. ^. ^
"Donald Trump and his supporters are a clear and present danger to democracy."
Judge Luttig quote from the third House Hearing held on June 16, 2022.
United States Select House Committee on January 6th next Hearings:
--Tuesday, June 21: l p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT)
--Thursday, June 23: 3 p.m. ET (Noon PT)
One more Hearing to be scheduled.
Judge J. Michael Luttig PBS "Frontline Interview" May 25, 2022 "filmed for a forthcomingdocumentary looking at challenges to American democracy" HERE.
Wracking my brain for some humorous topic to write about, I came up with diddly squat, zero, naught, nada, zilch. Unless you think it's funny that sometime during the past year I concluded, for some unknown curious reason, that I was a year older than I actually am!
I credit my daughter for adding this unexpected year to my life when she phoned on my birthday, asked what year I was born and did the math. I just lose track of the years which seem to have decreasing significance to me as I get older. So, go ahead and laugh at my expense. What do I care? I'm a year younger than I've been thinking!
Old Folks -- FOUR FRESHMEN. Vocal by Don Barbour
This seems a good time to consider the reports of a new study should we all continue to live through the coming decades -- Human Mortality at Extreme Age, recently released by The Royal Society Publishing you can read HERE.
"The first human could live to 130 within this century" as Victor Tangermann at Futurism's Neoscope reports in his summary of the study's conclusion HERE.
"The researchers also found that past a certain point, the risk of dying as a supercentenarian plateaus, and remains constant at a 50/50 chance of dying within a given year. The implication, seemingly, is that sufficiently advanced medicine could provide many people with Methuselah-esque lifespans."
"Beyond age 110 one can think of living another year as being almost like flipping a coin," Anthony Davison, lead researcher and professor of statistics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), told Agence France-Presse."
This blog has no centenarians, those 100 years of age, or even in their 90's reading, writing here, including me, to the best of my knowledge currently. (Some do have living parents in their 90's and Millie, a 96 year old long time blogger is on my blogroll), Some of us are getting closer with the present years having a way of rapidly flying by, so I find some of these statistics and projections to be of greater interest to me now than when I was much younger.
"In 1990 there were 2.9 centenarians for every 10.000 adults ages 65 and older around the world. That share grew to 7.4 by 2015 and is projected to rise to 23.6 by 2050. That's only 28+ years from now! Some of us may still be around then.
The research continues, "Since 1990, the population of those ages 80 and older -- the oldest segments of the 65-plus population -- has grown more rapidly than that of the younger segments, those ages 65-79. This faster growth is driven by improved life expectancies among those 65 and older."
Reuters reports U.S. life expectancy in men has dropped 2 years in 2020 since the pandemic which isn't over yet. The rest of the world effects are discussed, also. The figures above may still reflect an expected generally accurate upward trend but further analysis is warranted.
Pew research continues: "...the U.S. leads the world in terms of the sheer number of centenarians, followed by Japan, China, India and Italy."
Perhaps the Global Conference 2021 on the future of aging as described by the Milken Institute provides some insights on what we can anticipate which you can check HERE.
BBC Future of Ageing focuses on some technologies that could transform ageing HERE.
I'm really curious about what the years ahead of us will be like?
I do wonder how this pandemic may further impact some of these figures and projections?
I ponder about possible adverse effects on our aged population if, in the U.S., we lose our constitutional democratic republic to the establishment of an autocracy masquerading as a democracy in our nation?
I consider sometimes, just how long I really want to live? The bottom line for me is that keeping my mind is critical to my having the quality of life I desire. My physical condition matters, too, as I wonder just how satisfied I would be continuing to live, should I experience a serious lessening of functioning abilities?
Have you given any thought to aging issues, formulated any views on these matters, or even changed your perspective as you may have experienced health changes and are becoming older?
P.S. Rain is on the way, maybe up to an inch, which won't eliminate our drought, but moisture is coming to SoCal! Hooray!
I’ve taken quite a lengthy break from writing here.Thanks to commenters for your continued
interest despite my mercurial writing commitment.I
really haven’t known if I would resume writing, but concluded if I did, I
wanted a limited publishing schedule and posts of relatively short content.We’ll
see how well I can follow that plan as it’s no understatement to say that I can
tend to become a bit verbose as you likely have noted.
Also, especially since 2016, when I begin to write I’m often
challenged with thought intrusion associated with preservation of our threatened
democratic republic’s freedoms. Consequently, I experience frustration resisting
excessively writing about the state of our nation.I realize too much of this subject matter may
be less than appealing to readers here, but I seem to feel the need to express
myself.
Those were my thoughts before the most recent actions initiated
by our nation’s leader who has now unleashed
the potential for even more dangerous unpredictable world events.Escalating uncertainty ensues with unknown
consequences. Additionally, indicators
of our planet’s climate changes, denied by this same leader, increasingly manifest
themselves in destructive weather events around the world we read or hear about
in our daily news such as the present horrendous Australian fires.
I long for a nation and world that seems not to have so many more such
serious issues demanding immediate resolution.I entertain the hope we will overcome these challenges for the
betterment of humankind but wonder if any will occur in my lifetime, much less that of my children and grandchildren.Perhaps in a more desirable environment my
thoughts and writing would explore light-hearted topics.I try to differentiate between what I can
realistically do to positively influence matters and what is beyond my control.
The manner in which I can act to impact the situations has
altered through the years.My ageing, physical condition has gradually limited
me more, but the very least I can do is to vote as I have now arranged to do by
mail should I be unable to visit my voting site.Traditional voting sites are changing in
California and elsewhere, anyway.We
just need to insure as best we can the security and integrity of our states
voting systems.We also need to combat voter
intimidation through limiting laws and any gerrymandering prevalent in some
states.
We can combat the forces that defy our nation’s values with
the November 2020 national elections offering a significant major opportunity
to do so.We need to facilitate new voter registration through
every method possible as one means of accomplishing this opportunity for necessary meaningful change.
Meanwhile, we’re all faced with finding coping mechanisms to
aid in retaining our sanity for relief from the unbidden heavy life complications
foisted upon us.We each do so in our own way.I use a variety of methods in an effort to
balance my thoughts with other input.Just a few alternate focus areas for me include following my distant
family members activities, listening to music, pleasurably reading both fiction
and nonfiction, engaging in a variety of other involvements that also serve as
distractions, but humor of all kinds is a saving grace.
I never knew what one favored type of humor, often flippant and funny, sometimes with
serious meaning, was called, “Paraprosodokian”, where the statement ending can
be quite unexpected, a reversal from the beginning of the statement, such as:
"War does not determine who is right – only who is left."
What prompts your choice of writing topics?
How do you cope with any frustrations you may feel with life
issues?
