My dissertation advisor Jerry Bruner died this summer at age 100. He played tennis still at the age of 93, although he admitted he now needed an “occasional nap.” Even more impressive, he joined the NYU faculty around age 75 to build a new program there, teaching the Colloquium on the Theory of Legal Practice at the law school for more than two decades. This after having shifted numerous times onto a totally different topic of research during a long and distinguished career.

There are many examples of successful aging around us, and many explorations of how one could make it the norm, at least for those of us who have the luck of being reasonably healthy. Since I come from a background where relatives on one side died around or before the age of sixty, and the other side in their late seventies, with the occasional exception, I never thought I would need to inform myself about what works and what doesn’t during aging. But I might as well, in case I should live longer than expected – and anyways, it is actually an interesting topic.

So, for this week I’ll be digging up some smart materials that teach us what should and what shouldn’t be done to promote a productive, healthy and hopefully content old age. We start with some thoughts on the relationships between the generations, and a shift in one’s own perspective with increasing years. The link provides an interesting discussion of finding the balance between independence, not wanting to be controlled by your children, and the need to listen to their advice, should we be lucky enough that they care.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/03/when-youre-the-aging-parent/472290/

Photographs are with few exceptions all street photography. Note, of course, since they were all met in public, they still had the ability to move – something that is unfortunately not true for so many shut-ins due to mobility issues. So the sample might be skewed.