Words for Winter Wonderland

What else were you going to do in this weather?

Photo: Getty Images

Happy Holidays, one and all!

This will be my last post in 2022 (I’m taking off next week to visit family, weather and Covid permitting).

Please know how very grateful I am to you for your support this year! Thank you to all who subscribe - your numbers have more than doubled this year – to all who augment the conversation with comments and suggestions, and to all whose paid subscriptions make it all possible. You make my encore career a joy, and I appreciate your support so much.  

Old Man Winter Reading

Today, if you live in North America and the weather wizards were on top of their game, you have a 75% chance of being snowbound, icebound, windswept – in other words, “it ain’t a fit night out for man or beast.” I hope you are indoors, cozy, and warm. As long as you’re inside, here are a few suggestions for great reading about positive aging to carry you into the new year. These sources helped me understand aspects of aging and enlarged my perspectives.  

Longevity Lifestyle by Design: Redefining What Retirement Can Be, by Mike Drak and friends.

First things first: this book is available for free! No need to run to the bookstore or the library; you can download it at https://longevitylifestylebydesign.boomingencore.com/.Author Mike Drak, a self-proclaimed “retirement rebel” whose first post-work experience gave him first-hand experience in  “Retirement Hell,” has teamed up with fellow retirement coaches to reveal the secrets to a long, happy, fulfilling retirement. Chapters include nine steps for designing “your ideal longevity lifestyle.” The book is not a page-turner, but it is rich with ideas that are relevant to all of us on how to approach our encore phase of life.

No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters, by Ursula K. Le Guin.

At the age of 80, the highly acclaimed science fiction novelist Ursula K. Le Guin decided to try writing a blog, a feat of derring-do that is inspiring in itself. When assembled in book form, the blog posts from the final decade of her life look remarkably like short essays, which in fact they are, and they make delightful reading. Le Guin’s distinctive voice shines through. She is an intelligent observer who has seen it all, sometimes with amusement but often with impatience. In the title essay, for example, she cleverly picks apart a Harvard alumni questionnaire, reflecting on questions that confound her such as “In your spare time, what do you do?” Le Guin concludes: “I still don’t know what spare time is because all my time is occupied. It always has been and it is now. It’s occupied by living.”

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,  by Atul Gawande.

I know I’m late to the party on this book, which was published in 2014, but it is quite remarkable in raising some highly pertinent questions. When is medical intervention counterproductive? Can doctors learn to balance what’s possible against the kind of life the patient desires? Is there a point at which keeping older adults safe prevents them from enjoying life’s small pleasures? Illustrating these dilemmas are compelling human stories, including the sad tale of the last days of the author’s father. The book is a powerful critique of how American medicine is practiced and how elderly adults are treated.

What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age, by Ken Dychtwald and Robert Morison.

If you didn’t know Ken Dychtwald has been following the Baby Boom generation since the 1970s and has built his career on predicting their impact on virtually everything, he’ll remind you on page 1. The story that Boomer demographics tell in this book is how the cohort’s vast numbers, together with longer lifespans, is redefining retirement and the senior healthcare industry. Dychtwald’s research concludes what Boomers really want is to live with purpose and leave a legacy.

And Even More Reading

Here are more sources of good reading accessible from the internet, courtesy of my writing comrades at Substack:

Seventysomething, by Susie Kaufman. A retired hospice chaplain with a strong contemplative streak, Susie writes beautifully crafted essays about aging that raise profound questions.

A Considerable Age, by Alice Goldbloom. Alice, another fine essayist, shares her platform with a variety of carefully curated guest contributors.

Non-Boring History, by Annette Laing. A trained historian who prides herself on not writing like one, Annette is a Brit by birth, a former professor, and a great storyteller who cuts through American myths to write about the overlooked, forgotten, and misunderstood chapters in American history with great wit and a heaping helping of snark.

Vintage Morels, by Wayne Christensen. If you’re not hungry, you will be once you feast your eyes on Wayne’s newsletter, filled with odes to great dishes of every culinary tradition. Wayne also shares his experiences with fine dining and fine wining.

Spread your love around, stay warm, and let’s continue the conversation in the new year.