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{weblog_name} - So Who Are The Caregivers?
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    Having explored the essence of caring for another person, we now ask: just who are these caregivers?  As family members, this includes us to varying degrees of time, energy and willingness.  Sad statistics show that often family caregivers burn out, then they themselves need the caregiving. So along the way, to share the load, many of us need to pay for help, whether in the home or a facility.     Thus, necessity ushers us into the world of professional caregivers.  Who enters this field and why, and what do they bring with them?  It’s no secret, particularly in metropolitan areas that most caregivers are persons of color with a significant number being immigrants, many from the West Indies.  It’s also no secret that these are the only jobs they ‘can get’ that pay barely more than… read more

{weblog_name} - Care Giving
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    Given all the hullabaloo these days about baby boomers aging, Alzheimer’s becoming epidemic and caregivers in shortage, the question looms: exactly what is adequate care giving, and are people with these meritorious skills born or made?  In past days when many elders still lived with their families, it was assumed that the wives of these families knew how to dispense physical care and T.L.C. in such a way that usually no outside help was sought.  Was it solely because one was a relative that she was able to provide this?  Yes and no.  While physical care and semi-medical skills needed to be learned somewhere, what seemed to come with least effort was the T.L.C.  This was thought to be intrinsic to the relationship of care giver to care needer.     Today we pay strangers to get… read more

{weblog_name} - OCCUPYING…STILL
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    “We want the same thing.”  My father spoke these self-revalatory words in the mid-1970’s when his forays into the world as a CPA brought the dawning awareness that Black Americans’ desires for a supportive job and viable family life were no different than our own.  This wasn’t born of some study of civil rights theory or even Jewish values as much as just a plain as day admission that all human beings crave and deserve a decent life.     Thirty years hence, my Dad has now passed.  His personal growth expanded to having a variety of relationships with some African Americans he came to call his friends.  And yet, in many respects, their quest for a decent life has remained elusive.     Now we have the “OCCUPY” movement calling for fairness based on a redistribution… read more

{weblog_name} - BY ANY NAME—STILL FAMILY
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    Our mega-family reunion has come and gone.  Getting together with persons I may have heretofore passed on the street but not known that we were related has proved the following.     I have a cousin through marriage who is a union organizer and another, also through marriage, who is a gun toting NRA member. (Alright, they’re not my same blood, but can I lay claim to the social justice genes from the labor guy?)  I have a previous generation rabbi cousin whose volumes still fill shelves in Jewish bookstores and whose picture has a place of honor on homes of his loyal followers.  And I have a cousin, one generation younger than me, who is an expert Israeli folk dancer and practices Messianic Judaism.  My head wants to align with the inquisitive Talmudic mind, and my… read more

{weblog_name} - CAMPING OUT—STARTING OVER
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    Last week, as a Sierra Club volunteer, I went camping with 15 teenagers.  They are recent Hispanic immigrants, attend Baltimore City Public Schools and are part of an after-school program in Fells Point sponsored by the Baltimore City Health Department.     “Muy pequeno” English was spoken, so all of my bodily movement and facially expressive skills were on display.  This was challenging, interesting and seemed worthwhile to try to connect young people adrift in a society full of obstacles to a resource which is mostly free and provides a grounding and uplifting experience.     Over Labor Day, my family of origin will have a large reunion to meet those with whom we may never have associated a face with a name and to celebrate the multi-generational journey of our ‘mishpacha’ on these shores.  A century… read more

{weblog_name} - “...and now, let’s go for a swim.”
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    Aren’t we all so glad to take a dip in the pool when we’re hot and miserable?  Not everyone. One says he never learned to swim as a child. Another emphatically states she will not don a bathing suit.  These resistances speak to the twin perils of aging—being acutely aware of gaps in past development and assessing where one lines up now on a societal standard that is deemed impossible to meet.     So perhaps past learning was ineffective or teaching was incorrect or the experience was a frightening one. Now there are pedagogic and psychological methods to overcome these, if one is open. We’re not talking Michael Phelps or diving; we’re trying to increase a comfort level.     The bathing suit issue.  Tell me one woman who is completely satisfied with how she looks. … read more

{weblog_name} - The Value of a Dollar
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    Encapsulating a history where I’ve seen inflation rise and fall, weathered other dire recessions and wondered about covering my next bills, I have respect for the dollar.  I’m far from my Dad who made $10 weekly at his first accounting job in 1940 and even from myself who was proud to earn $95 in the mid-‘60’s as a neophyte reporter.     Yet, a dollar ain’t no spare change. And if aging gives us not just a perch to judge right from wrong but rather some timeline perspective, then it’s interesting to note where a dollar is spent these days and the import we bring to it. Economists call this ‘extrinsic value’, as different than the gold standard. So it’s all in the eyes and genes of the beholder, and when that spending beholder has lived 60… read more

{weblog_name} - “Let’s Start with a Walk…”
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It’s good for us; who can argue?  Every doctor and health expert tell us to pump that blood, stretch those muscles. It’s a good way to get up an get going, so we don’t waste the day. We may meet friends and interact, all good for the brain cells.     There’s walking paraphernalia, sturdy shoes and inserts, wick-a-way nylon to dismiss sweat and heaven forbid, actual body odors, MP3 players to pipe soothing sounds through our ears. There’s walking indoors which calls for purchase of a treadmill or joining a gym which means having a ready way to get there. There’s walking outdoors which means finding routes with a minimum of traffic where we won’t feel too bored or get in a rut which could discourage regular usage.  All of this costs money, takes planning,  may involve coordination… read more

{weblog_name} - Getting to Know Me/You…
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    In the global sense, we are all aging after we take our first breath.  In a more specific sense, we usually think of aging as a period of decline after we hit our peak.  In the most individual sense, this can vary greatly for each of us.  On one hand, we claim personal perrogative in deciding how to act and categorize ourself; on the other hand, ‘limitations’  step in to define us.  Which is correct—our self-assertion or the realities of time passing?  Who gets to decide where each of us is in this aging process and what is ‘appropriate’ behavior, choices or planning?     The ‘aging industry’ is huge.  For every iota of our existence, there is a product, a service, a program, an institution that seeks to lure us to eat, to wear, to engage… read more