I haven't seen this op ed discussed here, and maybe I just missed it. I read the article last week, some of it I liked and some I didn't but I have been too busy to bother going back to reread. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/0.....iness.html

Then Duchesse posted her views on this same topic.https://passagedesperles.blogs.....ssage.html

And today Angie's post. So I threw these things out for anyone who wants to discuss them further.

I have good health despite a few bad habits. A bit of arthritis. Harder to lose weight. I owe some of it to luck, good genes, and to the fact that my mother was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 57, and my f-i-l with angina and serious heart problems at age 48. My Mom lived to be almost 93, and f-i-l to 55. 3 of my 4 grandparents died of cancer.

I was in my mid-20s at the time and I immediately went to the library and started researching latest studies. In the late 70s Norman Pritikin became a client of DHs and we read and followed the general outlines of his books. DH has has had a lot of difficulties that resulted in serious and numerous surgeries and he takes lots of prescription medicines, but he's healthy and can still squat all the way down which I can't do without serious knee problems.

One of the things that inspires me is my love of fashion, inherited from Mom and her mother. When Grandma died--she claimed to be 77 but research proved she was 80--Mom was horrified that Grandma left a $100 bill at a downtown dress shop. (Sizable bill in 1953.) My older sister complained that she couldn't keep up with Grandma on her downtown shopping trips. My Mom made my sister, her caretaker towards the end, to promise to have her Mom's hair done the way she liked and not too much make up when she was in her coffin.

When my Mom used to complain about getting old, I wanted to answer her, but didn't: Well, what did you expect? I try hard not to complain.

Well, I was raised to be a modest Mormon girl, so I have never been too comfortable in mini-skirts and low cut tops, so dressing like a teenager has never been enticing, but I still want to look good in classic, "relaxed polish" clothes.

I believe that wanting to look good and be healthy as possible are one and the same goals.

While I like to read many blogs for women of a certain age, I refuse to accept the attitude that I am decrepit and useless.

We take continuing ed classes at Stanford. Have one tonight on the 1st Amendment. Often looking around at our classmates we remark that it make us feel young. Some people are carried in by their caretakers, there was one frequent classmate who was bent over at the waist, couldn't sit up straight, but there she was, learning new things.

Besides taking classes, traveling, keeping up with friends and family, and gardening, although I've had to give some of it up, I have one more goal before I'm done: to finish the biography I've been writing the last 11 years. I'm maybe 2/3 through the first draft, I have to limit my hours in front of the computer, but I'm going to get it done. I've joined history groups, presented articles at conferences, and had articles published, all since I turned 70. I am so busy!

And I almost never accept help taking my groceries out. Don't the baggers realize I do pushups? I do let them take out my 20 pound bags of birds at the Bird Watcher store. Why push my luck?