I Trust Cows

I prefer butter to margarine, because I trust cows more than I trust chemists.
—  Joan Dye Gussow
[Happy Birthday, Sis!  This quote made me think of you.  LOL!!  —  Love, Kevin]
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On This Day In:
2017	Don’t Sink Now
2016	A Burning Passion To Teach Freedom
2015	Before Debit (And Credit) Cards
2014	Herding Cats
2013	Ooops!
2012	Understand A Great Truth
2011	Start Here…
2010	Random Acts of Vandalism On Easter Weekend…

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Does Fatalism Equal Mental Health?

Living healthily is nothing less than arriving at old age accepting one’s one and only life cycle as that something that had to be and that, by necessity, permitted of no substitution.
—  Erik Erikson
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On This Day In:
2017	Choice
2016	Growing Worlds
2015	Change The Tide
	Martyr, n.
2014	You, Too!
2013	Bitter Stand
2012	Lost For Words
2011	On Market Reactions…

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Learning About My Humanity

What you learn is often determined by what you need to know.  If you think you’re weak, you will learn that you are strong.  If you think you are indestructible, you will learn that you are fragile. In the end though, you will learn that you are human.  You are no more and no less than all those who are learning their lessons as you learn yours.
―  John Bingham
[What running / jogging / walking  – a commitment to exercise – can teach you.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2017	Laugh Or Shake Your Head
2016	The Expected Cure
2015	Of Two Minds
2014	Pride And Remembrance
2013	Repeating Bad Memories
2012	No Sooner
2011	Just Cheesy!
	Are You Illin’?

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Happy New Year — 2018!

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
―  Jorge Luis Borges
Do not be afraid to fail.  Be afraid to accept that who you are right now is all you are going to be.
―  John Bingham
From his book: “Running for Mortals: A Commonsense Plan for Changing Your Life With Running“
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
―  Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
From his novel: “Mother Night“
I am nothing special, of this I am sure.  I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life.  There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough…
―  Nicholas Sparks
From his novel: “The Notebook“
[Happy New Year’s Day to all!  The years are beginning to run together (pun intended).  This year, my resolutions are (in addition to yesterday’s post) to read more books and to try to be more consistent in my working out so I can (hopefully) grow my mind as I shed my waist.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2017	Happy New Year — 2017!
2016	Happy New Year — 2016!
	Remembering My Brother
2015	Happy New Year — 2015!
2014	Happy New Year – 2014!
2013	Another New Year’s Thought (In Case It Rains)
	Happy New Year – 2013!
2012	Best Wishes For 2012!
	Where Did You Spend New Year’s Eve?
2011	Happy New Year (2011)!!

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Best Wishes For 2018!

Cheers to you, my blog readers!  Here are a few suggested resolutions for 2018:
1) Give of yourselves…
2) Love others (and tell them / show them often)…
3) Enjoy long walks (preferably while holding someone’s hand), nutritious food and candle-lit meals, good reading, music which touches your soul, and quiet moments for reflection…
4) Laugh frequently and loudly…  Cry freely and unashamed when you must…
5) Look forward (Hope), while living in the moment (Enjoy), and not forgetting the past (Memories)…
May you have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2018!
Please have a happy (and safe) New Year’s Eve!
[Yes, this is a similar post (okay, the same as) to last year’s New Year’s Eve suggestions.  And, this year, yes, I’m just being lazy!  LOL   —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2016	Best Wishes For 2017!
2015	Better Red Than Dead
	Tomorrow Starts A New Year
2014	Recovering
2013	Best Wishes For 2014!
2012	My Creed
2011	It Probably Isn’t So

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Falling Forward One Step At A Time

We were not designed to stand still.  If we were, we’d have at least three legs.  We were designed to move.  Our bodies are bodies that have walked across vast continents.  Our bodies are bodies that have carried objects of art and war over great distances.  We are no less mobile than our ancestors.  We are athletes.  We are warriors.  We are human.
―  John Bingham
From: “Running for Mortals: A Commonsense Plan for Changing Your Life With Running“
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On This Day In:
2016	And Without Expectation
2015	Just Do It
	I Am A Runner
2014	Some Things I Learned (Mostly) In The Army:
2013	Who You Are
2012	Mine Stands
2011	Aversions

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While Congress Slept

The existing safety net for older Americans – a mixture of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – was built for a society that no longer exists.  When Congress created Social Security in 1935, the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 61; now it is nearly 80.  When Congress created Medicare and Medicaid in 1965, it was still common for people to die of acute medical issues, like heart attacks; now many survive those traumas and go on to live, with some assistance, for decades longer.  In 1960, the U.S. was overwhelmingly young: just 10% of the population was over 65.  By 2040, 1 in 5 of us will be eligible for that senior ticket at the theater.
As more people live longer, the social and economic systems designed to care for them are changing.  In midcentury America, women had yet to join the traditional workforce en masse and so were widely expected to keep doing what they’d always done: provide unpaid care to children and ailing relatives at home.  Moreover, in the 1960s, a large portion of families had access to stable, fixed pensions in retirement, and about a quarter of all workers were covered by generous, union-negotiated contracts.  Staying in the same job for decades was common.
None of that is true anymore.  Some 40% of households with children under 18 are now headed by women who are the primary breadwinner.  Those women can no longer stay home to care for children or ailing relatives without risking their family’s financial stability.  Meanwhile, fixed pensions have all but disappeared, and union membership has fallen by more than half.  Nearly 1 in 3 nonretired Americans has no retirement savings at all.  “Our current system doesn’t reflect how we’ve changed as a society,” explains Dr. Bruce Chernof, president and CEO of the SCAN Foundation, which advocates for older adults.  “So it’s being asked to do all kinds of things it wasn’t designed to do.”
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Much of the U.S. economy rides on how this crisis plays out.  Spending on long-term care is expected to more than double from 1.3% of GDP to 3% by 2050 as demand increases alongside an aging populace.  America’s entrepreneurial system is coming up with myriad new ways to serve this growing demographic of gray-hairs.  But in an era of deregulation, companies that profit from the natural, but often unsettling, process of aging and dying aren’t always scrupulous.  The result is a social tension: As health care companies seek to reap not only efficiencies but also profits from a jury-rigged, outdated and overburdened system of elder care, how do we protect those who are often most vulnerable to exploitation?
When things don’t work, the results are ugly.  In nursing homes and assisted-living centers, ever more ubiquitous arbitration agreements leave the elderly without access to a basic civil trial.  Hospice care, beloved by many, is seen as a potential profit center by companies seeking government contracts while providing diminished service to those at the end of their lives.  And Medicaid, once intended to be a last-ditch safeguard for the poorest of the poor, is creaking under the weight of new obligations.  Medicaid is now the default payer for 61% of all nursing-home residents in the U.S., according to a June 2017 Kaiser Family Foundation report – a demand that’s likely to continue to increase.  Meanwhile, adult children already contribute $7,000 to $14,000 a year to caring for an aging parent, according to a 2016 AARP report; that number will likely see an uptick too.
—  Haley Sweetland Edwards
From the “Special Report”: “Dignity, death and America’s crisis in elder care“
Time Magazine, 27 November 2017 issue
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On This Day In:
2016	And A Fellow Who Insists On Telling Us He’s Smart?
2015	Curves Ahead
2014	Sitting?
2013	Misperceptions
2012	Essential Experience
2011	Lest We Forget Those Still In Harm’s Way
	Sound Familiar?

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