Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Marc Blesoff
Our undiscovered treasures
When we denigrate aging and only see it primarily as a time of decline and weakness, we rob ourselves of one of the most influential and powerful forces in our life. The End of Old Age The other day I caught a glimpse of myself as I passed the hallway mirror. I stopped and backed up a few steps for a longer gaze. What grabbed my attention was a flap of skin. I know I had seen it before, just under my chin and above my throat. But I'd also seen it on other older people.
We need to campaign against ageism
I've written here previously if you think life peaks in middle age and then it's all downhill after that, that's what you get. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Most of us now agree that lessening our stress has a positive impact on our blood pressure, but it wasn't too long ago when that idea was thought to be a bunch of left-coast woo woo. The premise here is that what we think or how we feel actually affects our physical health; indeed, it actually affects our physical surroundings.
A quantum leap to what's true
Relationship is the fundamental truth of this world of appearance. Whenever we recall a given object or experience, we do not get an exact reproduction but an interpretation, a newly constructed version of the original. Many of us, if not most, frequently live for appearances' sake. But successes, like memories, are not always what they appear to be. Indeed, our "appearances" can be illusory and even unimportant.
We're different, but we don't need to disappear
Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die. People start to disappear as we get older. I'm not talking about the fact that "old people" in our society are forced to become invisible. I'm not talking about los desaparecidos (the disappeared), the Argentines who were secretly arrested and murdered by an Argentinian dictatorship.
Making Oak Park a more resilient community
We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. I went to the Resilient Communities Forum last Wednesday night, regarding local implications of climate change. There were probably 175 people in attendance. I have it on good authority that about 75 percent of them were over 50 years of age.
Exploring elderhood: a new stage of the life cycle
Largely because of longevity, our culture has entered a phase never seen before. Dr. Bill Thomas (of ChangingAging) speaks of an emerging new stage of life that follows adulthood. This new stage, which can be called "elderhood," has its own standards and its own values, distinct from adulthood. One of the factors leading to the dawn of the elderhood stage is today's longevity, previously unseen in the human species.
Gerotranscendence in the last third of life
Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better! Aging is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been. As I've written before, the last third of life gives us the opportunity to get closer to being the person we'd like to be. Implicit in this is that we actually think about who we'd like to be, not what we'd like to be doing, and not just for appearance's sake.
Arbor West Neighbors forum hits the mark
People spoke from the heart and from experience. Housing became the very personal, human thing that most of us just gloss over. The Arbor West Neighbors (AWN) forum at the Oak Park Public Library last Saturday, titled "Creating and Recreating Home: Options for Aging in Community," was well attended, well organized, well informed and inspirational.
Stepping up and challenging 'anti-aging'
Extra!! Extra!! Read all about it! I'd never even heard of Allure magazine. It is a leading, sophisticated advertising package for cosmetics, fashion, perfume, hair, etc. Flipping through the pages, one notices Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Lancome, Neutrogena, L'Oreal, and all the heavy hitters in the amazing, billion-dollar beauty industry. I was in CVS, wearing beat-up sandals, dirty cut-offs and a stained T-shirt, unshaven, buying cough syrup. I saw the magazine cover at the checkout.
Addressing our aging prison population
The U.S. has the largest prison population in the world. Last March, I facilitated an Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) Conscious Aging Workshop program at a federal prison. This was an eight-week pilot program. As a criminal defense attorney, I had been in and out of jails and prisons for over 30 years to visit former clients, most of whom were young. Now I sensed a circle closing as I went back inside to work with men my own age or older.
How ageism in health care can be dangerous
The Republican efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare, if successful, will have disastrous effects on the quality of life for older Americans and their extended families, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. However, no matter what health-care system evolves (Obamacare, Trumpcare, single-payer or something else), the danger of older hospitalized patients being misdiagnosed due to age bias will still exist and grow.
Staying active, letting life enhance
I think I can do that! Eighty-five years ago, when Ginie Cassin was 8 years old at Longfellow Elementary School here in Oak Park, she entered the Flag Day oratory contest and ruffled a few feathers by doing so. Not only was she the first female to enter that holiday contest, she was also the first female to win it and move on to the finals at the Lowell School at Forest and Lake (now the site of 100 Forest Place).
Aging is not a disease
On Thursday, June 15, Ashton Applewhite, author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, will speak at the Concordia University Chapel at 7 p.m. This is an event for our entire community that will educate, stimulate and put ageism squarely on the map. Old is not bad. Older people are not suffering a disease called "aging." Depending on one's world view, the last third of life actually gets better.
A sense of meaning and purpose
Every month, facilitators of the IONS Conscious Aging workshops get together for a teleconference, and one question for our recent gathering was, "As you reflect on your life journey, choose an event or an experience or a conversation that gave you a sense of meaning and purpose." One such event for me was the conference last month at Concordia University, titled Resilient Aging - Resilient Living: Cultivating Community Good for All Ages.
Resilient aging and aging in place
What is couldn't be any izzer. Unknown (but repeated by my mother in law) Dr. Bill Thomas (of ChangingAging notoriety) speaks of an emerging new stage of life that follows adulthood. This new stage, which can be called "elderhood," has its own standards and values distinct from adulthood. One of the factors leading to the elderhood stage is today's longevity, never before seen in the human species.
Plenty of aging options are percolating
There is a lot of activity, thought and emotion percolating in our Oak Park neighborhood regarding aging consciously, and this mirrors a vigorous and growing trend all across the country. In sorely divided times, the fact that we all go through the process of aging and dying could become one of the thin unifying threads that develops into a cord and then possibly a strong rope as we all get through the rough times ahead.
Reframing our views of aging
Let death be what takes us, not lack of imagination. A few weeks ago, former astronaut/engineer Eugene Cernan died. He was the last of the 12 humans (thus far) to set foot on the moon. He grew up in Maywood and Bellwood and graduated from Proviso Township High School (now Proviso East) and Purdue University. The Cernan Earth and Space Center at Triton is named for him. A year ago, former astronaut/physicist Edgar Mitchell died. He was the sixth human to walk on the moon.
Embracing every moment of our journey
Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you hold well. There is poignancy to our last third of life that is difficult to know and understand until one gets to it. It takes time. Several months ago I wrote about wabi-sabi, a Japanese expression for appreciating the beauty of impermanence (e.g., the old wooden bannister worn smooth by thousands of hands over the years). Implicit in wabi-sabi is the passage of time.
Still standing up for what's right
A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species. The afternoon of human life must also have a significance of its own. I remember when Richard Nixon was elected president of the United States in 1968. I remember that nauseous feeling I had in the pit of my stomach. I was a sophomore in college. My high school friends were getting killed in Vietnam. I marched in demonstrations against the war.
The changes life brings
Life is change, how it differs from the rocks. ... My life is to survive, and be alive. Over the past few months, two or three times, I've seen an older guy around town who looks really familiar, but I just can't quite place him or remember how I know him, if I even do know him. He is friendly-looking, with a pleasant face and something inside tells me I liked this person, or maybe I would like him if we haven't actually met yet. It's kind of an odd feeling.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Marc
Contact Marc, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack