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Do you remember the 1993 hit movie "Grumpy Old Men"? It starred Jack Lemmon, who was 68 at the time, and Walter Matthau, who was 73. The gist of the comedy is that older people are almost inevitably in a bad mood, and because of their advanced age they have essentially forgotten how to laugh or smile. A more recent example of this ageist ...Read more

ATTENTION MARILYN MURRAY WILLISON EDITORS: THE FOLLOWING COLUMN WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 2016. THANK YOU. -- CREATORS

Are You Resistant to Change?

About 100 years ago, Anatole France, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1921, weighed in on the reason why change can be so challenging. He wrote, "All changes ... have their melancholy; ...Read more

I have a dear friend who has been a widow for three years. She recently told me that special days, like her birthday, Valentine's Day or her anniversary always make her feel depressed. She knows that no one would ever love or pamper her the way her husband did. And that sobering fact always makes her really sad.

I let my friend verbally cry on ...Read more

There are plenty of cynical and clueless amateur social theorists who believe that after a certain age seniors no longer pay attention to or are invested in their appearance. According to these out-of-touch observers (maybe they're millennials), the middle-aged and elderly actively avoid gazing in mirrors. Instead, they prefer to focus their ...Read more

Unless you are blessed with superior, Zen-like mind control, you have probably noticed an unwelcome uptick in your anxiety levels as you've grown older. It's not uncommon for seniors to be burdened with a variety of age-related concerns -- on top of the ordinary worries everyone else copes with. But it doesn't help us to obsess and worry over ...Read more

I've always liked this quote from Abraham Lincoln, who was known to suffer from major bouts of depression: "Folks are usually as happy as they make their minds up to be."

In the last decade, dozens of best-selling books have been published that dissect the various attitudes and techniques needed to get and keep a positive frame of mind. From ...Read more

Unless you are part of a microscopic minority, something has probably happened within the last 10 years to serve as a reminder that you are not as physically young as you used to be. Perhaps you're a little stiffer in the morning. Maybe your tennis game is a bit slower. Or maybe you've developed an illness that has seriously affected the way you...Read more

Have you noticed that something strange seems to happen after you reach the age of 60? The people in our lives, especially those closest to us, often make a quiet (but frequently misguided) gear shift into protection mode. Our children urge restraint when it comes to physical activities, our colleagues begin shifting stress-laden and travel-...Read more

Last month, I wrote about the remarkable book "Genius Food," which gave me a whole new perspective on our health in general and diabetes in particular. According to author Max Lugavere and his co-author, Dr. Paul Grewal, a variety of medical issues stem from our bodies' inability to process all the sugar found in the standard American diet. Some...Read more

I just love it when I learn about an experiment that has turned out to be a win-win for everyone involved. Don't you?

Back in 1982, the Housing Opportunities & Maintenance for the Elderly organization in Chicago, or H.O.M.E., started as an experiment in innovative housing options for low-income seniors. Pat Crowley House was the first ...Read more

Ever since the 2008 Great Recession, large numbers of young people have chosen (or been forced because of finances) to move back home and live with Mom and Dad. But according to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, nearly half of Americans who are in their 40s and 50s have a parent who is 65 years or older and are either raising a young child or ...Read more

I live in South Florida, which is frequently referred to as the home of the silver tsunami. This phrase describes the fact that people like me, the baby boomers (there are 74.9 million of us, born between 1946 and 1964), are beginning to hit retirement age. Unfortunately, this happens to be the precise age when most cases of Alzheimer's disease ...Read more

For those of us old enough to remember the popular TV program "American Bandstand," dancing has always seemed like a fun social activity. And even now, when "Dancing with the Stars" is a hit network show, few people think of dancing as an easy way for seniors to stay healthy and avoid health problems. But the truth is, as far back as the 1940s, ...Read more