"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E.B. White

How much do we love Sandra Wise, the “wise.woman.aging” sensation on Instagram (thanks to Saul for turning me on to her)?

I loved my co-founder Jeff Hamaoui’s blog post a couple of years ago about how the impostor’s syndrome can be remade into an explorer’s mindset (https://bit.ly/3GlvafJ). What an empowering idea.

Many of you know I struggled significantly in my late 40s, feeling more like a "modern failure" than a "modern elder." My life had become predictable and overwhelmingly negative. Everything was crap! To wrestle my ego, control, and status to the ground, fate threw me a curve ball. Really, it was more like a rare knuckleball, and I was striking out left and right.

It’s been a few weeks and I’m still reflecting on Saturday night’s high school reunion. Forty years ago, a group of 84 young women left for university believing they would seize the world. Then last Saturday, 56 of them, exactly 66%, reunited in Sydney, Australia.

I’m reading more books than ever. I have a long list in the not-yet-purchased queue, and a good 8+ that I’ve started but not finished. I wander between books rather than hunkering down with one at a time. It’s a bit of my wiring, I suspect. My style has always been to maintain a plethora of options, to ride each wave to the next wave to yet another wave, rather than riding one crest all the way to the comfort of shore.

To ferment is to distill something down to its essence and preserve it. We do it with beer, wine, yogurt, kimchi, and kombucha.

So, this Medium article (https://bit.ly/3uo1nAn) by Tris Harkness with the provocative title above caught my eye. Here’s her opening two paragraphs:

At your intergenerational family Thanksgiving dinner, did you have a spirited discussion about the President’s age? Based upon an informal survey of a dozen friends, “talking turkey” about Joe was the #1 topic at the dinner table.

Older Americans hold most of the country’s wealth, but they also are the fastest-growing age demographic when it comes to their percentage of the economy’s spending, as evidenced by this graphic below that was in this recent Wall Street Journal story (https://on.wsj.com/3GdIWkE). While the historical narrative has been that older people are more affected by economic turbulence (especially inflation), this story suggests that their finances are relatively healthy. They have less need to borrow, so they’re not as affected by higher interest rates and are less at risk of layoffs than other consumers.