Category Archives: Attitudes

Pop-Up Proverb 8

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jackinthebox#8 – On Delayed Gratification

“Leave some fun for later.”

— Jennifer Bryan at Wedding Reception in Houston
In a conversation about getting a (small!) tattoo
June 27, 2009

Why I Like This:

It’s a reminder to be patient with life. We don’t have to do it all now. I remember when this occurred to me, though maybe not in those words.

I must admit that at times I would view my four growing children as interruptions of my work – domestic and otherwise – until I would remember that they were my work – and pleasure. To view their needs and wants as interruptions interfered with that pleasure. Continue reading →

Rewards of an Aging Mind

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Did you know that as you age, you are more likely to use both sides of your brain?

In an intriguing report in The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, Sarah Hampton cites recent research at Duke University, in which MRI’s and PET scans of the brains of people over 50 showed that when they perform tasks, they use both sides of the brain at the same time. The brains of younger adults tend to be more asymmetrical – one side is more dominant than the other.

This was good news to Dr. Gene Cohen, founding director of the Center on Aging, Health and Humanities at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., who has been a gerontologist since his medical school days. His most recent book is entitled The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain. Continue reading →

Pop-up Proverb 6

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jackinthebox

#6 – On Books

Books are keys to wisdom’s treasure;

Books are paths that upward lead.

Books are gates to lands of pleasure;

Books are friends.

Come, let us read!

from her Little Notebook of Sayings
Hilda Kitt, 1890 – 1967


Junk Food Attitudes

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You know the usual advice for attaining physical fitness: “Eat nutritious food, and exercise.” It also includes a caution to avoid junk food, which is not only low in nutrition but high in calories, fat, salt, sugar and other potentially deadly ingredients.

Yet, like junk food for the mind, negative attitudes are readily available. They can also be palatable, easy to swallow, even fashionable. Continue reading →

Pop-up Proverb 5

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Pop-up Proverbs are sayings that catch my fancy as I go about my day. Some have surprising sources; all of them have made me stop and think – and maybe smile a little.

#5 – Aging

Grace: “Mother, there’s a splendid new book on avoiding old age. You ought to read it.”
Abbie Deal: “I’m only sixty-two, Grace, and I don’t see any signs of senility. You can’t avoid old age, but you don’t need to think about it.”

From A Lantern in Her Hand, page 221
by Bess Streeter Aldrich


Pop-up Proverbs 1-4

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Pop-up Proverbs are sayings that catch my fancy as I go about my day. Some have surprising sources; all of them have made me stop and think – and maybe smile a little.

#1 – Gossip:

“When you’re talking about me, you’re leaving someone else alone.”

My dad – Bruce Kitt 1921-2007
As quoted by my mother

#2 – Fear

“It is not failure itself that holds you back; it is the fear of failure that paralyzes you.”

Brian Tracy
Nightingale-Conant Newsletter, May 17, 2009

#3 – Materialism

“[Islam] teaches me to hold my material possessions in my hand, and not my heart, so if they’re taken away from me I won’t be affected.”

Abeer Raazi, May 14, 2009
Interview with Krista Tippett on Speaking of Faith radio program

#4 – Wealth

“Money is the longest route to happiness.”

Evangeline Lilly, of Lost
Quoted in Women’s Health magazine, June 2009

Making Fun of Old Age

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We would not dream of kidding someone about looking Hispanic, because that would not only be insensitive but would indicate we think there’s something wrong with having dark eyes, dark hair and bronze skin.

We would not kid someone about looking obese or walking like they had multiple sclerosis, because obesity has negative connotations, and we recognize multiple sclerosis as a debilitating and incurable disease.

Yet we think it’s funny to laugh about getting old. If it’s okay to be old, why laugh about it? If it’s not okay, then should it be funny? Continue reading →

Celebrate Aging

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Everyone wants to age, unless they have some kind of suicide wish. When you’re under ten years old, you call it growing up. When you’re a teenager you may say, “When I get older,” but you say it with hope, not dread.

So when does the dread start? At what age do we stop wanting to admit we’re aging? 20? 30?

Remember how when you were 12 you wanted to be 18 and when you were 18 you wanted to be 21? Is that the age when we stop wanting to be older?

In this age of emphasis on the kind of energy that only the very young can have, some people dread turning 30, because they see only a downhill slope after that.

But I believe it’s all in your attitude, which is why I’ve decided that 106 is the age to dread. By then I’m certain to be blind, deaf, toothless and no longer ambulatory. And that’s the year my oldest child will turn 80 years old and may not be able to take care of me any longer.

So go ahead. Try to talk about aging like a teenager would: With hope, with plans for the future. Why not? Because if you’re aging, it means you’re still alive.

Grab your life, shake it up, and drink it with enthusiasm.

Let’s talk about it. What age do you – or did you – dread the most? What are you planning for the future?