Category Archives: Places

Reports from around America and the world

A Motorcycle Journey

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Wayne Flick

Last year, my brother Wayne and I motorcycled the full lengths of Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, visited some museums and rode the Cherohala Skyway between North Carolina and Tennessee. We spent 7 nights together, 4 in tents, and the weather was good throughout. It’s been the longest time I’ve had alone with a brother in many years.

The best parts of retirement are often adventures we never had time for in middle life. Both Wayne and I motorcycled in our youth, then we gave it up because of the risks and costs. Retirement offered us each a few years when we could again experience the constant accompaniment of wind as we rode with somewhat modest abandon through mountain roads. Continue reading →

Can We Read Our Way to Redemption?

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Our class

A varying bunch of us seniors have been studying literature together for two years. Our class is part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Georgia, which offers classes, clubs and social events for mature adults.

We just read A Good Man Is Hard to Find, a short story by Flannery O’Connor, first published in 1953 when she was 28 years old, then again in a book of the same name in 1955.

The story involves a deadly confrontation in rural Georgia between a criminal, The Misfit, and a family heading to vacation in Florida. The final scene portends Christian salvation juxtaposed with violence and death, and redemption occurs in so ordinary a way as to invite us to reflect on our own prospects.

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Loss and Resilience in Alabama: A Photo Essay on the Tornadoes of 2011

Gallery

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This gallery contains 25 photos.

The spring of 2011 brought violent storms to middle America, and some of the fiercest moved through Alabama on April 27. An EF-4 storm cut a swath from Tuscaloosa through parts of Birmingham, killing about 60 people, and an EF-5 … Continue reading →

Boomers Aging in Place and the Beacon Hill Village

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A Village Aging in Place

There are currently about 35 million people age 65 or older living in the United States. Last year, the leading edge of the population tsunami that is the Baby Boomer generation turned 65. By 2030, the nation’s population of 65 or older will more than double (PDF), reaching 72.1 million people according to the federal Administration on Aging.

The increasing number of elderly Americans means an increasing demand for services, which will strain public resources at all levels. The demand will be great, but it is nothing preparation can’t take care of, and the time to prepare is now. Unfortunately, the economic recovery underway in the U.S. is slow and halting. The consequent lack of tax money means governments will likely be unable to handle the wave of elderly citizens that will soon engulf many communities. Continue reading →

Connect With Your Community at the Farmer’s Market

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Later Living: Early customers at the Athens Farmer's Market

Good food is an important part of a good life. The food movement, as it is sometimes called, emphasizes alternatives to the abundance of prepackaged, additive-ladened food in modern supermarkets. It seeks to induce shoppers to consider a wide range of food attributes instead of just price and convenience. Continue reading →

How Far Can You Imagine?

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In the March 5, 2012 issue of The New Yorker, Nick Paumgarten reports on “Magic Mountain: What happens at Davos?” (I’m not sure if a paywall prevents public readership.) Davos refers to the five-day, invitation only, annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, (WEF) which its web site says includes, “a cast of the world’s intellectual, business, arts, cultural and social giants.”

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Country Friends

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There’s still a little magic in every motorcycle ride to the country. When I was young, our family took automobile rides on many Sunday afternoons, and I always loved to watch the farms and forests roll by, imagining what it would be like to live where we passed. Sometimes my father stopped and talked with people we saw near the road.

On a recent motorcycle ride I stopped to watch a small herd of Holsteins in a roadside pasture. They were grazing slowly toward me, but once I dismounted and walked toward the fence, they turned and headed away. Their owner came out from the farmhouse across the street to say hello and ask about my interest in cows. He looked about my age, but he was smaller, more wiry.

“Pretty, aren’t they,” he offered.

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