Forward unpleasant mail to address in the Bahamas
I had a strange collision with reality last week.
I was watching the U.S. Senate hearings on thousands of American corporations listing the same five-story building as their headquarters. Some of the Senators were naturally askance that this hadn’t raised any eyebrows until now.
At the same time, I opened my mail to find an official document from the Social Security Administration saying that they had overpaid me $1 for the past 16 months. To balance their books, they will be taking $16 from my next Social Security payment.
Obviously, I should have given my mailing address as that already crowded building in the Bahamas.
Can’t answer phone without makeup
I’m blessed to have two adult children who keep propelling me into the 21st century. I now have a Web cam which allows me to talk to my son in San Diego while seeing him live on the computer screen.
The mini camera was less than $50 and has a built-in microphone. The sound comes from the computer speakers. The program needed can be downloaded free; the call itself goes through the Internet for no additional cost. I feel like Buck Rogers’ girlfriend!
This is an amazing experience and the only downside for us who wear makeup is that you can see yourself in a little window cut-out (just what the other party is seeing when you talk). You have to resist the temptation to comb your hair while talking!
A new book about an age-old subject
“The Art of Dying,” by Dr. Sherwin Nuland, professor of surgery at Yale University, contends that there is indeed an art to aging.
We are not merely hostages to our genetic inheritance and financial resources; instead there are things most of us can do to make our later years better through maintaining good health, mental activity and important relationships.
Dr. Nuland’s early book, “How We Die,” was a straightforward account of the body’s shutting down at death. Unlike that book, Dr. Nuland’s new book is almost lyrical. He quotes poets, philosophers and academic researchers. He points out that the average life expectancy in America has gone fr
om 47.3 years in 1900 to 77.9 years in 2004. He suggests that it’s even possible one day to imagine 120 years as a normal biological life span. But Dr. Nuland is not interested in solely increasing life span, but also in making the last years of living as enjoyable and happy as possible.
His concern with happiness reminded me of my husband Fran’s “Reflection on Happiness,” written shortly before his death:
If approached directly.
There is no sudden, brilliant
Light burst of happiness.
Rather, while doing one’s best
To self and others,
Happiness emerges from the shade
Where it has been all along.