The hiatus from my blog, gave me a little time to observe the comings and goings of my fellow inmates at the retirement center. One or two had dropped from the scene, literally, having taken unexpected falls that required surgery or prolonged bed rest. I saved another from a similar f

Situational dynamics is a proven way to seduce  good people into doing bad things, a discovery that began as an experiment and was later documented in The Lucifer Effect, by Phillip Zimbardo in 2007.  The study upon which the book was based, and which will be dramatized this month a

There’s a gaggle of men, all over 90,  who hang together at my retirement center.  Often, I join them for coffee and the laughter can get pretty rowdy.  Sometimes, though, I’ll find one of them dozing in an overstuffed chair in the lobby.  Whichever one it is, I always hope he

In a recent interview, Nobel winner Toni Morrison talked about growing up as an African American and what color and beauty meant within the black community.  At Howard University, which she attended, she said there was a test for beauty.  The ideal was to have skin no darker than th

There was a time not long ago when government funded most of the medical research in this country.  (“Tech’s Quest for Immortality,” reprint from The Washington Post article by Ariana Eunjung Cha, The Week, May 8, 3/15 pg. 37.)  Now, two-thirds of that research is funded by bi

When I was a senior in college, I took a class in art history from a beloved professor, Lloyd Reynolds. On the day our final exams were returned, the professor called out my name and discovering I had skipped class, he read my essay to those present.   After he’d finished, he conc

At the retirement center I’m learning the fine art of living in a community while retaining my solitude.  The impulse of others to be welcoming is touching, so I am developing ways to assure my neighbors that solitude isn’t synonymous with being lonely. Solitude is a quest for a

When I took yoga classes a while ago, the teacher kept reminding her students to breathe. I thought that was strange because breathing is as natural as, well…. breathing. But, Emma Sepala, PhD at Stanford University and co-author of a book on post-traumatic stress affirms that, “t

I admit it. I’ve been known to talk to myself. Yesterday, I had to get snarky. Three times I attempted to leave the house and three times, I returned for my keys, my purse and finally, my gloves. Exasperated, I bellowed to the four walls, “Hello Caroline. How about joining the par

The Gap is a new book by Thomas Suddendorf that argues the reason homo sapiens stand intellectually above other animals isn’t a matter of engineering but the results of having outlived our nearest competitors. According to the author, as little as 30,000 years ago, “several specie