Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Bark louder, little dog.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

This fight is for everything.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Something Good Open Thread / Monday Motivation: Age Does Not Matter

Monday Motivation: Age Does Not Matter

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Before you say, I can’t…check out this thread.

The entire thread is full of great stories (click here) Just a little good news to start out the week.

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55Comments

  3. 3.

    PsiFighter37

    Slightly OT: Booker is out. Not surprising, but thought he’d limp through Iowa, given he had apparently built a decent operation. Wonder if he endorsed anyone – think he goes either for Biden or Klobuchar if he does.

  5. 5.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @PsiFighter37:  you don’t think Warren? I really have no sense of who  Booker’s base is, but he doesn’t seem to like Biden, and she hasn’t picked Castro yet….

  6. 6.

    Josie

    Age should never keep us from striving toward our goals.  I’m 76 and in the process of writing my first novel, a romance that takes place during the Mexican Revolution.  It’s taking me a long time to revise and lengthen it, but I am determined to finish it and self publish, even if it’s just for my grandchildren to read some day.

  7. 7.

    Aimai

    At 56 I went back to school to get my MSW and now at 59 I am a clinical therapist giving therapy to people with psychotic disorders and trauma full time. Most of my patients are homeless or impoverished. I love my work. At 60 I will hold an independent license and branch out.

  11. 11.

    JoyceH

    I published my first novel at 59. Now have 11 books released. I’m not a household name or anything but people like my books and the money is useful.

  13. 13.

    Jager

    Mrs. J, better known as “Cakes” quit her job as a flight attendant after 20 years, she was 44 years old. She took a break, started selling for a regional magazine, did really well. One of her agency clients offered her a job, a year later one of the agency’s better clients offered her the opportunity to set up an in-house agency and handle all their marketing. She helped them grow from 6 stores to 11 in 5 years. A furniture manufacturer then hired her to do their on-line and direct to retail marketing. A year ago, her old boss offered her a chance to set up and run her own furniture design and wholesale business, she’s kicking ass with it. OTOH still misses her overnights in London, Rome, and Paris.

  15. 15.

    H.E.Wolf

    This book is one of my favorites on the topic: One Hundred Over 100, by Jim Heynen. It was published in 1990, and has an interview and a full-page black-and-white photograph for each of 100 centenarians.

    The intro by the book’s author mentioned that no one particular psychological attitude, or state of overall mental or physical health, seemed necessary to become a centarian.

    He did say, tongue-in-cheek, that being a spinster in a “helping” profession seemed to be a useful component. :)

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3602987-one-hundred-over-100

  16. 16.

    SFAW

    Glad that some olds are able to thrive in their new callings/careers/vocations.

    I, on the other hand, hope to be able to regale y’all with uplifting stories of how I was able to sell my stuff on ebay and Craigslist for 25 cents on the dollar. 

  17. 17.

    Brett

    As someone in the age range mentioned in the post, and trying now to figure out my own thing, I love this.  Thank you for the inspiration in the new year.

  18. 18.

    satby

    I love these stories too, because in a very small way it’s my life. The most important thing to remember is just not to waste time waiting for “some day”. Start today, even if your only goal is a bucket list trip to take care of elephants in Asia. Because if you don’t waste time, you’ll get there.

  19. 19.

    Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)

    Got my photography associates degree last July, a couple of weeks after turning 51.  Have a part-time internship that works with my day job schedule and gives me free use of a fully-equipped studio.  Now to market myself, which is the scary part.

     

    I needed this.  Thank you for posting it.

  21. 21.

    WaterGirl

    @Jager: I will once again make note of the fact that we have a number of Mrs. Js referenced on this blog, all of whom seem to be  amazing and wonderful, even if they are not all the same Mrs. J.

  23. 23.

    feebog

    I retired from the federal government at age 59 after 40 years.  Started a practice as a labor arbitrator and have all the work I want after 15 years.  Not sure when or if I’m going to retire.

  24. 24.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    I’m going to be that person, but Abigail Disney (mentioned in one of the tweets) is one of the heirs to the Disney fortune and also has connections in the entertainment world that regular people will never have.  She is very talented and she also gives a LOT of money to charities, but it is easier to be able to have a second, or third career when you aren’t going to be working full time, probably for the rest of your life, to pay the bills and keep a roof over your head.   I am very happy for anyone who has the bravery and sees the opportunity to change the direction of their life.

  25. 25.

    CaseyL

    Being mid-60s, unemployed, and yearning to be a FT artist, this was interesting to read.

    Among the ideas I’m playing with has been selling my house in Seattle and moving somewhere I can buy outright with the proceeds. No mortgage would make living on SS a lot easier, and whatever I make on the side (selling my glass) would be a bonus.  I thought about it hard, and was looking at properties all over the place – Virginia, Montana, John’s West-by-God-Virginia – and ultimately decided I wouldn’t clear enough to get a place that was move-in ready.

    But I gotta tell you, my heart really yearned, oh how it yearned, for me to be able to devote myself full time to pursuing an art career.

  26. 26.

    joel hanes

    I had to switch engineering specialties and get a new job at age 55, and managed to make that work.

     

    But at age 67, I’m here to tell you that “age does not matter” is … only temporarily true in many cases, provisionally true in others, and sometimes just not true.

  27. 27.

    Ruckus

    Well, as I’ve said before, I’m still using a time card, at 70. Planning on another 14 months and retiring. Started this at 13 and am still doing the same kind of physical hand labor. Have had two other completely different careers, worked full time for 11 yrs in pro sports, after 20 part time as a hobby and 6 owning a bicycle/triathlon store and making bicycles, with a run at education after the military to be a doctor. The bike shop was the best and most fun but of course my timing and republican economic “theory,” which most often ends in recession and did, were at odds. But I’ve worked long hours most of my 57 year working life, often 60-70 hrs a week and that takes a toll.

    I’ve thought about doing different things, finishing the book that I started something like 20 yrs ago, working – am beginning to dislike that word – at some part time job in the assistance field. Maybe dog walker…….

  29. 29.

    Bnad

    The stories are inspirational but women are definitely represented here more than men.

    Would like to see more stories of men who made these later life changes.

  30. 30.

    opiejeanne

    Worked in several different jobs until I was 42, when I got a business license and started (legally) sewing for other people. I costumed cabaret shows, ice skaters, roller skaters (one of my costumes was on the national competition poster), an off-off-off (how many offs Broadway is  SF?) Broadway musical, but most of my clients were dance studios. I had ten studios, more than 1000 students but not all at once.  I costumed most of a Nutcracker. My costumes won awards, I got great reviews from the harshest entertainment critic working at the SF Chronicle, even when he didn’t like the plays, and I got to go places I never would have in one of my previous jobs.

    I retired at age 50, when we moved back to SoCal and 400 miles away from my clients, and even then a local studio sought me out for 67 costumes. I look at what I made then and so many of them seem garish, but at the time they were what was demanded. It was the 90s.

    At 53 we took a trip to Arkansas to assist mr opiejeanne’s idiot cousin (think Forrest Gump without the charm) with buying a pickup. Cousin’s mother had died and Dave was his trustee, and there were vultures waiting to pick his bones, so to speak. During this trip he decided to go with us on a side trip to Missouri, mainly to avoid one of his “friends” who had all sorts of investment proposals just waiting for when Bobby got his money.

    While on this trip he got to visit a great great aunt who was 96 and hadn’t seen him since he was 6, and she knew him on sight. Her memory of him was fond, thankfully.

    I picked up a local newspaper when we went through the part of the Ozarks my family is from and when I read it later realized that the historical story about bushwhackers was about my family, recorded in several Civil War and post war diaries. Talking to some very old people online for several years I pieced together more of the story, sat on the idea of a book for ten years before I wrote down what I thought of as the first chapter and let that sit for several more years until Mnemosyne talked me into doing NaNoWriMo two years ago, and I wrote 60,000 words while under the gun.  It’s about 100,000 words now, an historical novel, and needs some more work but I intend to finish it this year because I turn 70 soon and  I need to get on with it, get it finished, and then maybe hire a professional editor.

  31. 31.

    Ruckus

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    Yes it can be easier if you don’t actually need to do the work to earn enough to survive, and she is lucky, but is she doing something with her own talent rather than acting like the money means nothing, all the while living like there is no one else in the world?

    I don’t begrudge people with money who actually do something positive with it rather than just indulge themselves with crap that no one else wants or that inflates their massive unearned egos. Like someone, and his family, who we all know all too well.

    I’ve met people whose parents are/were very well known and very wealthy. Some were real people with actual feelings and real personalities, even if their parents could be/were shit. And some were complete assholes of the worst caliber. Takes all kinds. Some are lucky, many are not. I try to judge them on their merits, not who they ended up with as parents. BTW I’ve met people with out wealthy parents who also could be described by the above. Money can make them worse assholes but it’s not necessary for them to be who they are.

  32. 32.

    SFAW

    @joel hanes:

    But at age 67, I’m here to tell you that “age does not matter” is … only temporarily true in many cases, provisionally true in others, and sometimes just not true.

    Especially in engineering — unless you know someone on the inside. [Note: Naturally, there are exceptions to every “rule,” but corporations have been telling the market for 30-plus years that engineers are obsolete after around age 35 or 40.]

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    If you’re going to get mad at Abigail Disney for having connections to get her career started, I’ve got a whole list of folks for you to get mad at first: Colin Hanks, Rooney Mara, Emma Roberts, etc etc etc.

    Not to mention that “easier” and “easy” are by no means synonyms. The money gives more time and opportunity for things like acting classes, but it doesn’t hand you a Tony nomination.

  35. 35.

    Jay

    @SFAW:

    the reality, is it is across the board. The same people who want us all to have to work for a living, into our 70’s, are the same ones who won’t hire us after 50.

  36. 36.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @CaseyL: I can relate.  I’m 49 and have been a computer programmer for 20 years.  I’m turning 50 in less than a month and I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing.  And the thought of continuing to sit behind a desk and churn out more code makes me want to go screaming into the abyss.

    In my spare time over the last year, I’ve been making arts and crafts items (handmade journals, jewelry, sculptures, etc) for an online store.  But I have so little free time, it’s taking forever to get an inventory together.  I dream of quitting my job and opening a little brick and mortar store in a small town somewhere selling my creations and the work of other artists like yourself.  I don’t see how that will happen at this rate, but a person can certainly dream.

  37. 37.

    opiejeanne

    @CaseyL: I hope you find something soon that will pay you well and let you be an artist too. I’ve been worrying about you a bit because I know how grinding and exhausting being out of work can be.

  40. 40.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Ruckus: All true, Abigail has given away somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 mil since she turned 21 I believe, much of it to charity. And her laurels in the film/stage area are all earned with talent and hard work, but her last name probably did not hurt to initially get her foot in the door (or may have actually hurt, sometimes people can’t see children of famous people on their own merits).  I guess it’s just a combo of depression and debt that makes the ” Anything is possible, if you just try hard enough” feel impossible

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    @Bnad:

    My first attempted career change was in my mid/late 20s, going to school, studying medicine. The timeline didn’t work for someone that needed to work to eat and sleep. Plus family – won’t go into that. Second was 20 yrs later – going full time into pro sports as a manager for the sanctioning body. Third was at 56, opening a bicycle shop. At 63 I went back to working in a machine shop and I’m still there. Do I have regrets? Wouldn’t be human if I didn’t. But looking back doesn’t get one anywhere, time doesn’t work like that, other than reflection, recollection and hopefully learning what was fun and what not to do.

  43. 43.

    Ruckus

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:

    Well first off, that anything is possible if you just try hard enough is bullshit of the first order. If the saying was lots of things…. it would be fine, but anything is an order of several magnitudes larger and there are often way too many steps/block walls in the way.

    Those people in Memns comment didn’t ring a bell for me so I looked up who they were and ran across some famous names, one of them Eric Roberts. The name was of course familiar but couldn’t put a face to it. Google being your friend I clicked and OK I know who that is, and ran across an article about him. One of the things I noticed was the gist of a comment he made, one of the biggest roadblocks in our way is ourselves. Having some money or fame, or both can make life easier. Or harder. Usually easier but not always. About 35 yrs ago I met Bill Ford, then chairman of the board of Ford, grandson of Henry. Didn’t meet him at a work function but at a sporting event. His money didn’t mean much there, his position about the same. But he didn’t care, he was down to earth, literally in this case, just another guy at a sports event and getting to be on the inside, not because of his money or name but in spite of it.

    Money isn’t everything, but it is something we all need some of because that’s the only way the modern world works. No one needs a lot of it, everyone needs some. But humanity rewards those that do something people are willing to pay for, like Walt Disney. I know a welder that works at Disney, he isn’t wealthy but has a decent life. I’ve know others that worked there, one was a daughter of one of my dad’s buddies. Six-eight yrs older than me, she worked as one of the characters there in the mid/late 50s.

  45. 45.

    BethanyAnne

    it’s lovely to see a thread that keeps attention focused where it never has been before – on the Boomers. *Finally* they can see some coverage.

  46. 46.

    Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ

    @BethanyAnne: I see your point BUT I’m not a boomer….I’m Gen-X and this story applies to me just as much as to them.  We’re entering middle age and I think there is a whole lot of discontent in my generation.  And it doesn’t get any easier from here.

  48. 48.

    BC in Illinois

    At age 60, I was 60-80 pounds overweight. My son (the cross-country star) said “When you were 28, you were going to run a marathon with your Dad, but you never got to do it. Let’s warm up that idea again.”

    For two years, he ran at my pace, as I shed 50 pounds.

    In 2012, we ran the Marine Corps Marathon together, when he was 28 (and I was 62).

    The best part of it? Two to three to five to seven hour training runs with my son. With actual two to three to five to seven hour conversations with the kid. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.

  49. 49.

    BethanyAnne

    1. @opiejeanne: I love Boomers. Merely suggest that they not be the center of every story ever, and get an instant squid cloud of butthurt.  “Oh, you just want us all to die!”
  50. 50.

    JoyceH

    @joel hanes:

    “But at age 67, I’m here to tell you that “age does not matter” is … only temporarily true in many cases, provisionally true in others, and sometimes just not true.”

    Very true. I’m working to get back into shape but have accepted the fact that I’ll never be a prima ballerina. You can have all the gumption and willpower in the world, but sometimes the knees just say no.

  54. 54.

    BethanyAnne

    @opiejeanne: Well. If you want a more serious answer, then what you should say is nothing. As hard as it must be when you are in a cohort of narcissists who have had everything Be About Them for decades. I’ve seen a good twenty years of Baby Boomers Refuse to Age articles, all of the while being told to shut up, our refusal to age isn’t a refusal to mature and take any responsibility, la la la. Hateful? Maybe. Or maybe just hostile about the planet I’m getting from the Boomers as our Boomer President goes off like yet another old person who won’t grow up and won’t take responsibility the messes he makes.

    Sure, sure. Not All Boomers™. But if Olds didn’t want pushback, they shouldn’t have spent the last 40 years shitting on everyone younger than them as slacking Gen Xers or participation trophy millennials. So, sure, get all tone-police about me being hateful, cause I’m just particularly uninspired by the 300th article about how my elders and betters are Redefining Old Age.

  55. 55.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @BethanyAnne: Oh look, sad, angry person continues to attack others. Just the fact you looked at people who were succeeding after THIRTY years of age and somehow thought that meant boomers were making your life shitty says all we need to know about you

    bye-bye.

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