Living Longer, Part 2

Back in March I wrote briefly about asking my class how many would want to live an extra 50 years. I was surprised at how few students saw that as a desirable goal. A recent study has predicted that 1/2 of those born in 2011 will live to be 100, an amazing feat.

David Brooks, columnist for the NYTimes, wrote a recent editorial about living longer, called "Death and Budgets". In the column he makes the argument that our current fiscal crisis is the result of rising medical care costs. He goes on to note that "Years ago, people hoped that science could delay the onset of morbidity. We would live longer, healthier lives and then die quickly. This is not happening. Most of us will still suffer from chronic diseases for years near the end of life, and then die slowly." Actually, it is true that a greater proportion of life is now spent in years of good health. While it is true that many people suffer from chronic diseases we are much better at managing those diseases and their effects. As a result, active life expectancy has actually increased in the US and other Western countries.

I am not an expert on the current budget situation, but I am an expert on active life expectancy and the picture Brooks paints is just wrong.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opinion/15brooks.html

more on memory...

It must be obvious by now, and I've probably said it here before, that i have become increasingly fascinated with memory. So, it was with interest I read about a recent study on contextual memory. The actual study is pretty specific. People were asked to look at a list of words and then later to recall as many as they could. It turns out that people remember the words "in order." That is, if they remembered one word the next word they remembered was likely to be the word that immediately preceded or followed that word in the list. The theory is that the context of a memory matters, if we remember one part then other parts will follow.

The article in the Times that describes the study doesn't make any connections to other studies, but I was reminded of another recent story that looked at study habits. I'm sure I discussed it here and could go back and find it, but I won't. In that study, researchers found that students who studied in different places remembered more information. In a different way, context mattered. By studying in different places the encoded information was associated with more clues. Those clues helped in retrieval later on. It also reminds me of the clustering of memories used by memory competitors. Those people "chunk" information and use other clues to help anchor the memories (walking through a house, telling a story, etc.)

So, what about in real life? I notice that in talking with older people who have memory deficits that sometimes this clustering takes place. The retrieval of one memory, or part of a memory, will lead to a cascade of additional memories around an event. It is like priming a pump.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/health/05memory.html?ref=science

Christine Lagarde

I have a crush on Christine Lagarde. I don't think I had heard of her until a month or so ago. I happened to be in Paris right after the Strauss-Kahn scandal. He was the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and was accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid. In the aftermath, he resigned from the IMF and Christine Lagarde, France's Minister of Finance, was being touted as the likely successor. I saw her on TV and fell in love.

One look at her and you feel like she is someone you could trust. Someone who is competent, capable, level-headed, and reasonable. She inspires confidence and admiration. My favorite quote,"I honestly think that there should never be too much testosterone in one room."

She is only a year older than me. She is trained as a lawyer, not an economist (a plus in my book!) and has worked in the US and France. She made her way up the partner ladder in a large law firm before returning to France to enter the political scene.

Mostly, I think, I like her hair...

Welcome Mats

Many of us have a welcome mat at our front door. Sometimes we also have a little sign hanging on the door or near the door, inviting friends and family to come in. These can be silly and cute, often with pictures of animals, our names, or some play on words. Other times they are simple and direct, "Welcome friends." Recently I heard Anne Basting talk about the Penelope Project, her work to bring creativity and meaning into a nursing home setting (http://penelopeproject.wordpress.com/) . The project is based on the Odyssey, but focuses on Penelope--her waiting. In the story, when Odysseus returns home he is not recognized, but he is welcomed. How? The nursing home residents and theater students developed a beautiful set of gestures to convey the sense of welcome--my heart is open to you, I hear you, I welcome you, your eyes are like stars sparkling in the sky.

It is easy to think of how we might welcome someone into our home. We open the door, hang up their coat, offer them a chair, offer them food and drink. But, perhaps, most of all we make them feel welcome by paying attention to them, asking about their needs and concerns, including them in our conversations and activities. I can remember talking with my sons when they were younger about this idea. I would sometimes see that they left their friends alone while they went off to do something without them. Now, this might work for longtime friends or longterm guests in your home, we all need a little space, but, in general, this is not how we treat a guest in our home.

There are some homes in which I always feel welcomed. There is no pressure on me as a guest to conform to a particular way of being or thinking. There are some friends who seem able to create an atmosphere that is accepting and open without much effort. Other places seem less friendly, less relaxing, more pressured. I think we can learn a lot about ourselves from examining those places in which we feel most welcomed, what are the things we value? Order and cleanliness? Cheerfulness? Hustle and bustle? Calm and quiet?

How do welcome people into our lives in other places and settings? How do I welcome students into my classroom? It isn't really practical to have a welcome mat at the door, but maybe I should try that sometime! In some courses I've played music before class as students settle in, that seems to create a welcoming atmosphere. I often try to chat with students informally as they filter in, to recognize that they have lives other than the one I see in the classroom. I share stories about my life, so that they, too, can see that I have other facets to my life.

Creating welcome mats in all parts of our lives seems a worthwhile investment.

Sleep

Today's Chronicle of Higher Education had this headline for a story, "Students With Later Classes Get More Sleep, but Also More Booze and Lower Grades." The study, conducted by psychologists right here in Upstate New York at St. Lawrence University examined students class schedules, sleep schedules, mood, and substance abuse. They found that students who stay up late get more sleep, but they also drink more and get slightly lower grades than students who get up earlier. Intrigued, I went to the study abstract.

First, note the difference in titles. The "academic" title is: "Class Start Times, Sleep Schedule, and Circadian Preference: Preliminary Path Analysis Predicting Academic Performance in College Students." Now, which story are you more likely to want to read? The one about booze or the one about path analysis???? Anyway, what I found interesting is that the motivation for this study stems from the previous studies of high school students that found later school start times were reatled to decreased truancy and improved mood. Was the same true for college students?

The results confuse me. The researchers report that later class times were associated with delayed sleep times (ok, that makes sense). But they go on to say this was related to more missed classes, too. So, students were missing their classes even though they started later. I also found their discussion of night owls and late class times confusing. Which is more important--circadian preference or class schedule? Someone could be a night owl and have early classes--bad mix, or be a morning person and have later classes--maybe not as bad. Guess I'll have to wait for the full study to really understand what they did.

A little more on weeding...

I just had to do a little googling....

Here's a good "bad weed" quote....let's get rid of those cravings and ruminations!

"What is essential to practice the Tao is to get rid of cravings and vexations. If these afflictions are not removed, it is impossible to attain stability. This is like the case of the fertile field, which cannot produce good crops as long as the weeds are not cleared away. Cravings and ruminations are the weeds of the mind; if you do not clear them away, concentration and wisdom do not develop."- Chang San-feng, legendary founder of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, circa 1300 A.D.

AH, weeding as Zen...let's meditate on life's goodness while we sweat and the bugs bite and we are tired and hungry....

"People who spend a great deal of time in their gardens attest to the natural mindfulness that gardening requires. What could be more naturally mindful than weeding? It requires a great deal of sustained attention. Weeds need to be taken up with care: Pull too hard, and the weed breaks in your fingers, leaving the root to grow and spread. Different weeds need different techniques and, sometimes, tools. When we weed our gardens, we have to pay attention to where and how we walk and bend. Move too far in one direction or another, and we'll squash growing things."- Sura Lama Das, Awakening to the Sacred

Let's compare these two quotes...are weeds healthy rebels or the sign of a weak character???

"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows."- Doug Larson

"A person's character and their garden both reflect the amount of weeding that was done during the growing season."- Author Unknown

The balanced view, I'm liking you Carol, whoever you are....

"My garden is a balancing act between weeds and wonders. Though I started out as a frustrated perfectionist, over the years I've learned how to enjoy my garden rather than feel enslaved by it, thanks to a growing know-how and a change in mindset."- Carol Stocker

Weeding

I did some weeding in the flowerbeds today. Not one of my favorite tasks. There are some to claim that weeding is therapeutic or relaxing. I guess there is a sense of accomplishment, you can look at a clean area and see what you have done. But the work is tedious. On a hot day it is downright uncomfortable--sitting in the dirt or bending over, flies biting, sweat dripping...where's the relaxation?

I've seen some poems written about weeding, about the joys of pulling out the bad to make way for the growth of the good. I've seen analogies to life situations, about the need to kill the bad weeds so the good flowers can grow. There is a house down the road where the lawn is not mown all summer. The grass and weeds grow happily together and, from the road at least, it all looks green and healthy. Maybe a few weeds in the mix is not so bad after all. Maybe letting a few errant plants have their time in the sun makes the other flowers look even better.

Fortunately, after I finished weeding I was able to take a cold drink and sit in the shade with a book, and admire my clean flowerbed--although I did spot the smallest of weeds still there.