Just My Opinion

A new Gallup-Healthways index confirms there is such a thing as a mid-life crisis, but don’t worry because once we turn 65, it’s all laughter and contentment. older people are less likely to be sad or depressed than any other age group. In fact, although the difference is small, they’re actually somewhat happier.

As I pack up our home of more than 17 years, I gaze out my front window at the weeping cherry that my husband, David, bought me for the first wedding anniversary that we spent in our home. It was so tiny then, fragile, yet elegant.

If there’s one thing I learned from the deficit reduction talks in Washington, it’s that I can’t take for granted that the entitlements my parents and grandparents have enjoyed will remain the same for my generation of baby boomers.

Medicare and Social Security should not be on the table during the deficit reduction conversation. Rather, Congress should reduce wasteful spending and close tax loopholes for the wealthy and corporations. That was the takeaway from today’s AARP Massachusetts telephone town hall meeting.

It’s a lazy, rainy Sunday, and I’m trying to catch up with back issues of my decorating magazines. Too bad I need a magnifying glass and every light turned on in the room to make out the tiny, fancy white type describing where to purchase the items listed in the articles.

Here lies the opportunity for my generation to make sure that whatever Congress does to curb the deficit, Medicare and Social Security will not only survive, but will remain in forms we can count on as safety nets.

To quote American Humorist Will Rogers, “This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.”

Tears with my morning coffee. That’s not the best way to start the day. Yet, that’s how it began when I turned on the news and saw one of the nation’s most beloved actors, Mickey Rooney, 91, pouring out his heart to lawmakers about the abuse that made him feel powerless against supposed loved ones.

Barbara Streisand, old? Diane Keaton, old? Michael Douglas? Steve Martin? Jane Fonda? Maybe it’s me, but I just don’t think of these entertainers as being old. Yet, there they were — featured online on the homepage of TVGuide.com in a pictorial story titled, “Old People We Love.” As I flipped through the photos and bios, I actually had to return to the headline twice just to make sure I was perusing the right story.

When I was in the first grade, I had a particular interest in the number 100. I liked the way it sounded and looked. When I informed my teacher that I planned on living to 100, she didn’t laugh.