Author: richardfleming (Page 1 of 7)

December 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Meg Boulden

Growing old is complicated, an enigmatic journey. I used to think Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000-hour rule” made sense. He believed it took 10,000 hours of working in a complex field to become an expert. Seems reasonable, right? Well, if old age starts at 65, I have 83,227 hours of experience with this process and I still do not understand it well. Maybe grasping the ins and outs of aging requires a 100,000-hour rule.

One of many confounding aspects of growing old is that it does not happen in a gradual steady way. If aging happened in a linear fashion, we would see a slow continuing decline in our physical and mental functioning as the years pass by. Our aging process would be predictable, unsurprising.

But that is not what happens. Aging unfolds in fits and starts.

*    *    *

Sometimes a reduction in our function and vitality occurs abruptly because of illness. We may be pushing the grocery cart through the produce section, minding our own business, happy we were able to vote to protect democracy last month, when all of a sudden, boom, we fall to the ground and are paralyzed on our right side from a stroke.

Maybe we are sitting on the couch after eating a healthy dinner of fresh halibut, watching “A Man on the Inside” on television, when we suddenly feel a 30-pound weight on our chest. In the Emergency Department our suspicion that we might have had a heart attack is confirmed.

Or we might be peacefully watering our houseplants when the phone rings. It is our doctor’s office calling, saying she needs to see us this afternoon to discuss the results of our recent x-ray.

These kinds of problems interrupt our prior gradual process of aging with a jolt. We suddenly become five years older. Or ten. And there is no going  back. The smoothly-sloping downward trend we had been following suddenly assumes the shape of a cliff. When this happens it is clear that aging occurs in fits and starts.

Sometimes we are presented with a diagnosis which signals a faster rate of decline, but is not a cliff. Parkinson’s, congestive heart failure, chronic kidney disease – when we learn of having conditions like these, we know we will be facing more challenges sooner. The slope of our aging just became steeper.

Fortunately, through no virtue of my own, I have not yet been given any of these diagnostic accelerants. But of course the phone could ring anytime.

*    *    *

There is another interesting fits-and-starts phenomenon we oldsters can experience while we’re slip-sliding down the slope. Our bodies go through periods when the aging process accelerates for a while before resuming its prior trajectory. Over the course of a few months, we seem to lose a few years. Medical studies confirm this can happen.

I’ve experienced this phenomenon on a couple of occasions. Several years ago, I noticed over a period of a few months that I was having a harder time squatting down and standing up. At first I thought it was temporary. Maybe I’d strained my knees. But after a few months went by with no improvement, it dawned on me that squatting would be a bit of a challenge from that point on. And to think that activity had been a piece of cake, not long ago.

More recently, I’ve noticed a change in my general energy level. Compared to a few months ago, I get sluggish more easily. I get more tired, even when not doing a lot of activity. My sleep pattern has not changed. I’m eating the same as I always have. There is no recent change in life circumstances. My latest annual physical lab work was normal. But my stamina is not what it was even this past summer.

Maybe you have experienced something similar? Some change that came on over a few weeks to months that marked a break from your previous health status? This is another way that growing old proceeds in fits and starts.

*     *     *

Scientists are starting to confirm that changes in our metabolism and molecular structures related to aging do not happen in a steady linear fashion throughout life. A 2024 study in Nature Aging looked at various molecular markers of aging in 108 people. The authors found that at around age 44 and again at around age 60, there was a more rapid decline in function, compared to what was otherwise a reasonably steady decrease. Another study in Nature Medicine in 2019 also found occasional periods of more rapid molecular changes, but they identified these changes as happening at around ages 34, 60, and 78.

So the science on this issue is still evolving, as science often does. But it does seem clear that on a biochemical basis, our aging process is not a smooth downward slope.

*    *    *

So what are the take-home lessons for us old folks? Your guess is as good as mine. I am unaware of anything we can do to avoid the fits and starts of aging. Of course eating well, exercising our bodies and our brains, socializing, getting enough sleep, and avoiding stress can help. But even so, there will be times when it seems the speed of aging is increasing for a period.

When I was starting to plan my post-retirement life, I never thought that at age 74 I would find myself thinking, “Wow, I felt so much healthier at age 72.” I never imagined I would tell myself, “I would love to feel 73 again.”

But nowadays such thoughts do cross my mind.

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November 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo by Richard Fleming

My favorite hours are during the gloaming, the time of day when the sun eases down into the horizon. Shadows spread across the hills. The chirping birds of daytime grow silent, settling into their nests. A luminous glow spreads across the twilight sky.

Eventually the stars claim their due and vanquish the fading light, but during its brief and fleeting time, the gloaming creates an aura of magic. As I look out our back window or occasionally sit in the yard watching the gentle dusk take over the land, I am filled with a sense of calm. I feel I’m living in my designated time. Another rotation of the earth completed. Another day done. Another night of peace and renewal at hand.

*    *    *

And my favorite season is autumn. In many ways it reflects the gloaming. Just as each day grows old, so too does each year. In the fall, the colors are warmer and deeper than during the rest of the year. Leaves catch fire, then fall. Flocks of birds grace the sky, disappearing into the south. The air in autumn feels different than in other seasons. Winter’s air is biting and sharp. Spring’s is bracing, brisk. And summer’s air beats down with a hot intensity. But in the fall, the air becomes soft and gentle. It feels smooth on the skin. I enjoy the embrace of coolness, and the way my jacket brings warmth and comfort.

Autumn, too, sounds different than the other seasons. It is quieter. The noise of children playing outside after school subsides. Nature’s creatures are settling down, with less squawking and cooing. But the silence is not complete. It is broken by the crackling sound of dry leaves skittering down streets and sidewalks, blown by fitful winds, adding a percussive note to the diminishing days.

The season of fall feels like the culmination of everything that transpired in the seasons before. Winter’s barrenness gives way to the new growth of spring, which evolves into the maturation of summer. Then comes autumn. Growth stops and nature pauses, in preparation for the emptiness of winter. Autumn feels like a season of settling, a peaceful period between beginnings and endings, a linkage between openings and closings.

*    *    *

In autumn, the gloaming is a unique and special time. It is a charmed combination of the best months of the year and the best hours of the day. Twilight in the fall is a tranquil time. It is not so much a season filled with joy, as it is a time filled with serenity. It is rich in meaning and it induces reflection. It is wrapped in a sense of mystery and sweet melancholia.

In many ways, the gloaming in autumn reflects the circumstances of human aging. As we grow old, we reach a pensive stage of life in which we must acknowledge the reality that our growth and maturation have ended. We know that ahead lies diminution and a process of wrapping up.

But growing old need not be a time of despair. It is a time of acceptance. It is a period of seeing the world unambiguously. We reach the point where we can better understand the significance of where we are, where we have come from, and where we are headed. There is so much richness around us. During the gloaming of our lives, we can find serenity, and we can marvel at life’s beauty as well as its inevitable finitude.

Mornings, like springtime, are for the young. Afternoons, like summer, are claimed by those in the middle years. But the gloaming, like autumn, is the province of the old. It is a rich and complex tapestry, filled with beauty and uncertainty, stillness and sadness, but ultimately, acknowledgement.

For me, living through my 75^th year, the gloaming in autumn feels like the right place to dwell, for now. This time provides me a sense of settling, acceptance, grace, and peace. But I know at some point the glow will fade, and it will be time to move on.

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October 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Alan Jiang

Boomers and the Silent Generation are old souls. We earned this venerated status over many long decades. We weathered difficult storms, and we celebrated moments large and small. We hiked challenging mountains, and we learned and we taught. We navigated unfamiliar trails, and we captured small strands of wisdom on our journey forward. Most importantly, we offered love and we received love.

This rich web of experiences is what produces old souls.

Defining what constitutes an old soul is difficult. There is no single archetype. Old souls encompass qualities like understanding, empathy, an acceptance of uncertainty, a tempered curiosity, wisdom borne of complex life experiences, patience, and grace. Every old soul possesses qualities like these, though in varying measure.

It is hard to imagine Boomers or Silents who are not old souls, though I know such people exist. They are the “young at heart,” folks who somehow dodged the full impact of our travels through time. They continue living their lives much as they did when they were in their 20s or 30s, oblivious of the gathering clouds, refusing to accept the social and physical realities of old age. We all know people like this. Their approach to life is unusual and uncommon. But if they can pull it off without looking absurd, more power to them.

*    *    *

There is also an inverse phenomenon, one which may be harder to comprehend. Young people live among us who have old souls. Their old soul characteristics are not fully developed, but they manifest a wiser and deeper outlook on life than their peers.

I want to mention three examples of young people with old souls I have personally encountered.

Several years ago, when I was working as a medical director for Medi-Cal, one of the quality assurance staff was a 30-year-old woman whose favorite movies and TV programs were those featuring old people. She preferred books written by old authors about old topics. The culture and interests of others her age were of little concern for her. She had an old soul.

This past spring I taught a class on EKG reading to a group of 10 energetic young medical students. They had to record their attendance by signing in on a piece of paper, but only one of the ten students carried a pen. The others had no use for a pen, since they rarely if ever interacted with physical pieces of paper. The pen was passed around so everyone could sign in. The student with the pen was also the only one who came to class with a printed packet of sample EKG’s. The other nine viewed the EKG tracings on screens on their tablets. Learning EKG’s is much easier using paper tracings than looking at a screen, and the pen-carrying, paper-utilizing student was far more advanced in EKG interpretation than her classmates. When I complimented her at the end of the class about her use of pen and paper, she smiled briefly and said, “I’m just an old soul.”

For my last example, I want to talk about my granddaughter, who is 2 years, 9 months old. My wife and I get to babysit frequently and have a very close relationship with her. She often talks and acts in ways that give me pause. A few weeks ago, she walked up to me and said, “It’s a beautiful morning,” then asked, “How are you, Papa?” And she listened to my response attentively.

When her cousin had a bad headache several months ago, she was very concerned, almost tearful, showing on her face she knew the pain her cousin was feeling. The next time she saw her cousin a week later, she asked her how she was doing.

Recently, I told her a very bad joke. She listened to it, glared at me, rolled her eyes, and said very sarcastically, “You are so funny,” then walked away. This past weekend, my granddaughter was chatty and making constant comments and asking frequent questions. I was distracted with something else and kept saying, “Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm.” Finally she came over, shook my shoulder, and said, “Stop saying ‘Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm’ to me. Use your words!” On another occasion she responded to a comment I made, saying, “That doesn’t make sense.” There are many other examples of her saying things amusing, thoughtful, and empathetic.

I know that toddlers develop mental and physical skills at different speeds and different ages, but I find it a bit unusual for my granddaughter to sometimes sound like a 40-year-old.

*    *    *

What accounts for young people having old souls? Some feel it is confirmation of reincarnation. They believe that after a person dies, their soul enters a newborn baby. I find this hard to believe. But maybe I will have a different perspective on reincarnation in a few decades. For now, I look for reasons which are more easily verifiable.

It is fairly easy to understand how a person in their 20s or 30s becomes an old soul. They have a deeper level of empathy, understanding, and introspection than their peers. They incorporate life experiences easily and are less distracted by many societal trends which buffet the lives of young people.

But can a toddler truly be an old soul? What makes a child under age 3 empathetic? What leads her to understand and reject the occasional nonsense offered her by adults? Will she retain her old soul as she moves forward through life, or will it fade, and perhaps reappear in 30 years? I do not have answers.

Life is full of mysteries, conundrums, and unusual phenomena. But one of the more fascinating is discovering old souls among the younger generations. They enrich the fabric and embellish the tapestry of our lives, and confirm that age is not necessarily just a number.

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September 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Antonio Vivace

OK, after several years of ruminating on some of the good and some of the challenging aspects of growing old, the time has come to delve into one of the more sensitive topics about aging. Do old people smell? To cut to the chase – yes, yes we do. It is an intrinsic part of the biology of aging. But we need not despair. If you read to the end, you will see there is a silver lining to this story.

It is a well-known fact the human body emits odors. In this post, I will not address the smells which occasionally emerge from our gastrointestinal tract, nor the aroma coming from people who do not shower regularly or don’t like using deodorant. I will limit my observations to the typical scents released by normal, clean human skin.

The quality and nature of these aromas evolves as we age. During each stage of life – infancy, childhood, young adulthood, middle age, and old age – our skin produces an evolving set of odors. And as we proceed deeper into the realms of seniorhood, the intensity of the odors tends to deepen and the quality becomes more distinctive.

I still remember times when I was young, standing in line in a store, and smelling what seemed like a weird odor coming from an old person in front of me. It was not the typical pungent smell of someone who did not use deodorant, as was true of many of my male classmates in junior high school. The odor I sensed from old people was kind of a dusty, musty scent. Many other observers have also noted a distinctive smell when old folks are close at hand.

*    *    *

What accounts for the aromas emerging from human skin, and why do they change over time? To explain briefly, our skin cells produce anti-oxidants to help maintain their health. As we grow older, our skin cells’ anti-oxidant activity declines, along with so many other bodily functions. This leads to increasing oxidation of fatty acids in our skin. The degradation of fatty acids not only contributes to wrinkling of our skin, it also leads to increasing production of a chemical called 2-nonenal which builds up on our skin surface.

Nonenal is a substance with a grassy, somewhat greasy smell. It is not water soluble, meaning it is difficult to remove with soap and water. The more nonenal on our skin, the more we smell musty or stale. So, there are clearcut biological reasons for old people’s normal skin to smell different than younger people’s skin. The culprit is nonenal.

*    *    *

Two follow-up questions naturally emerge.

First, is there an evolutionary advantage to old people smelling old?

Frankly, I have no clue. Some aspects of growing old have no apparent benefits in the process of human evolution. My best guess is that the increasing production of nonenal in seniors is simply a byproduct of the loss of our skin’s anti-oxidant capabilities, which happens because our skin starts to grow tired after decades of service. After all, it is the largest organ in the human body. We cannot expect it to function at peak performance until the very end.

Second, how distinctive is old people’s smell? Is it significant enough to affect our community interactions?

Knowing that scientists are eternally inquisitive, it was predictable they would look into this question. A fascinating study of old people’s aroma was published in 2012. Researchers collected scent samples produced by three groups of people: 20-30 year olds, 45-55 year olds, and 75-95 year olds. This was done by having absorbent pads attached to people’s skin for five consecutive nights. All smell donors were instructed to shower every day and eat similar foods.

After the samples were collected, a different group of exclusively young people was asked to smell the pads from the three age groups. They were asked to guess which age group each scent came from.

And what was the result? The smell testers were able to identify the scent coming from old folks with remarkable accuracy. They had a harder time distinguishing between the scents produced by the younger and middle-aged folks, but they knew which skin pads had been worn by the elderly.

But the inquiry did not stop there. The scientists also asked the smelling group to identify which skin pads had the most unpleasant scent. Here too there was remarkable agreement. The worst scents came from one group: middle-aged males. Gen Z men, take note.

The scents produced by the old folks were distinctive, but not particularly unpleasant. Oldsters smelled kind of musty.

*    *    *

So what are we to conclude about this phenomenon of aging? We can confidently say the commonly-espoused belief that old people smell different is true. Even when we maintain good hygiene, our skin emits an odor which clearly defines who we are. But we can also state that our “old folks aroma” has been scientifically proven to not be unpleasant. (Forgive the double negative. Unfortunately, assessing the benefits of aging requires frequent use of double negatives.)

We have no reason to be embarrassed or bashful in the presence of young people. I look at it as a parallel phenomenon to how the scent of good wine improves as it ages. In similar fashion, we seniors acquire a unique smell as we age, an aroma we can claim as a measure of our excellent vintage.

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August 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Afif Nur Fahmi

Today’s post addresses one of the more minor irritants of aging. Considering the myriad challenges we old folks face, television watching must rank close to last in importance. But since we’re in the midst of the summer slow season, why not take a quick look at some small annoyances seniors can experience while watching TV.

Television is an enjoyable distraction. It can be relaxing to sit on the couch in the evening and watch the tube. My wife and I typically start with some news programming, but after our blood pressure rises too high, we switch to entertainment shows. Cooking contests, singing competitions, movies, mini-series, all are fun to watch and help bring the blood pressure back down.

But, as with many other activities of daily living – like driving, shopping, sleeping, remembering people’s names, safely stepping down from sidewalk curbs, and others – watching TV presents some unique challenges to older folk. Some stem from biology. Others are generational in nature. The problems for seniors are minor annoyances and of limited import. But they illustrate and echo some of the ways our connections to the larger society evolve as we age.

Biological factors

My hearing is diminishing year by year. Every six months I visit Costco to have the volume on my hearing aids adjusted upwards. Even so, listening to television programs can be challenging. I usually crank the TV’s sound up to a level my wife finds mildly uncomfortable. But at least it is not so loud the neighbors complain. Not yet anyway.

But my hearing difficulties go beyond simply the volume. I also sometimes find it hard to understand the dialogue. It seems my brain’s auditory processing center is aging more quickly than my ears, which still look normal. A number of my friends experience similar auditory challenges. These are not uncommon problems for old folks.

Subtitles are a godsend to help me with both volume and comprehension, and we keep them on screen most of the time. But I notice they are starting to speed by more quickly than a few years ago. I’m not sure if it is because the characters on screen are speaking more rapidly, or is the problem that my reading speed has slowed?

My memory can also create small problems. When watching a series with weekly episodes, I sometimes can’t recall important details from the prior week’s show. Who exactly did Kathy Bates’ “Matlock” character expose as a liar last week? Which cook did Gordon Ramsay boot out of the “MasterChef” kitchen in the prior episode? Thank goodness for recaps, which most shows have.

I often browse recommendation guides to find something to watch. But it can be challenging to remember which shows I’ve already seen. Some of the program synopses seem familiar, but I just can’t recall which ones I’ve already seen.

Generational factors

Most television programming – though not all – focuses on people from younger or middle-aged generations. This is understandable. These folks are more active. They are working in interesting jobs. They are solving crimes. Their inter-relationships are dynamic and often fraught. Certainly programs about these generations are much more interesting than shows dealing with the boomers and the silents. Let’s be blunt. Our lives are less glamorous, less exciting, and often… boring.

While watching shows about young generations, it is fascinating to see how their lives unfold, their relationships evolve, and their families develop. But I must confess I am starting to have trouble understanding some of their language. Not because they are speaking too softly or too fast, but because of the words they speak.

As an example, a few months ago we decided to watch the series “Industry.” It was well-reviewed and was supposed to be similar to “Succession,” an enjoyable show loosely based on the business intrigues of the Rupert Murdoch family. But the folks climbing the corporate ladders in “Industry” are all Gen Z’ers.

Parts of “Industry” were interesting, like the way social media dominates every aspect of Gen Z’s lives, and the different approach Gen Z takes to work-life balance than was true when boomers dominated the workplace.

But I kept getting confused by the jargon the characters used. One person said something along the lines of, “I’m going to crush that guy, no cap.” A young banker said a business plan was “lit.” Another character said a coworker had “serious drip” and her shoes were “fire.” Call me a fuddy duddy, but I got tired of having to pause the show and look up these terms in an online urban dictionary.

After three episodes, we switched to “Elsbeth,” a series about a quirky older-age detective. While it can be cloyingly cute, at least I understood the words being used.

Another generational change which impacts TV watching stems from the fact text messaging has replaced voice mail in much interpersonal communication. In many current TV shows the camera briefly shows a text message exchange on a character’s phone, then switches away. I have no idea what the text messages said or who they were from because they flashed by too fast. I have to pause the show, hit reverse, then press the pause button at just the right instant so I can read the messages. A minor annoyance, I know. But I never had this problem when TV characters left voice mail messages for each other.

*    *    *

OK, enough bellyaching about small inconveniences brought about by aging. TV is still an enjoyable distraction. And fortunately there are a few entertaining programs dealing with old people. The new iteration of “Matlock” with Kathy Bates is fun. In the first episode, the Bates character was having a hard time figuring out how to tap her credit card at a coffee shop payment terminal (been there, done that). Finally a nearby man helped her out. What made the scene cute was that Matlock fumbled her credit card on purpose as a ruse to gather information from the guy standing nearby. After that scene, I knew the show would be a keeper.

Another good show is “A Man on the Inside,” which tells the story of a retiree (played by Ted Danson) who is hired to move into a nursing home to investigate a robbery. It has a captivating story line and shows that even nursing home residents can live full and interesting lives.

Bottom line, watching TV remains a good vehicle to learn more about the world and an enjoyable way to relax. And now that I have finally learned how TV apps and streaming work, I’m less frustrated with the whole experience.

If you enjoyed reading this post, please consider forwarding it to friends who may be interested or posting a link to your social media feed. Also, if you are not yet a subscriber, it is an easy way to be notified of future posts, which I upload once or twice a month. Just enter your email address below, then check your email for a return message that requires a confirmatory click to complete the process. Subscriptions are free and no advertising will come your way.

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July 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Cal Gao

The new tax and budget bill signed into law July 4 will have substantial negative impacts on almost everyone in the country, except for the wealthy. Lower-income people will take the biggest hit. The bottom 20% of families will lose about $700 per year, while the top 20% of families will gain $5,700 per year (data from Yale Budget Lab). The new law orchestrates one of the biggest transfers of wealth from the poor to the rich in U.S. history.

While the new law will have widespread economic, social, and political effects, I want to focus this post on several ways seniors will be impacted. The consequences on our lives will likely be big, and they will not be beautiful.

For decades, we old folks have been able to rely on helpful government programs as we navigate the challenges of our post-retirement years. We have been able to count on benefits we earned through decades of hard work. In particular, both Social Security and health care – especially Medicare and Medicaid – have been programs we could depend on to provide a measure of stability in our senior years.

Well, those days appear to be over and the support we receive from those programs is on shaky ground. Let’s look at what we oldsters are now facing.

Social Security

The Trump administration proclaims that its new law “eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries.” Simply stated, this is not true. The new law actually makes no changes to taxes on Social Security. What the law does is temporarily increase the overall personal withholding amount for people 65 and older. Individuals who earn less than $75,000 per year or couples earning less than $150,000 can claim an extra $6,000 or $12,000 personal deduction. These amounts taper down to zero as income rises. So, for people with moderate incomes, they will see a temporary reduction in federal taxes on total income, not specifically on Social Security payments.

But a closer look shows how limited this tax change really is. Currently 64% of seniors pay no tax on their Social Security benefits because their income is too low. So they will experience no benefit from the new law. Some seniors earn more than the income limits, and they too will see no change in their taxation levels. Only 24% of all seniors on Social Security will benefit from the new law (data from the White House’s Council of Economic advisers). And it will be modest and temporary. Three quarters of seniors on Social Security will see no tax reduction.

But misrepresenting the new law as “no tax on Social Security” is not the worst problem. The law actually inflicts serious damage to Social Security itself. It reduces the money going into the Social Security Trust Fund by $30 billion per year, meaning the program will run out of money earlier. In 2032, unless something changes, everyone’s Social Security benefit will be reduced by 24% across the board. This is mandated under current law.

We seniors have been around the block a few times. We know the carnie barkers and fancy-talking shills promising us no taxes on Social Security are just blowing smoke.

Medicare and Medicaid

Almost all seniors get their health insurance through Medicare, and about 10% of seniors have what is called dual coverage, receiving benefits through Medicaid and Medicare. Both programs are seriously threatened by the new budget law, and seniors will probably suffer as a result.

The law reduces Medicaid spending by more than a trillion dollars over the coming decade. The most immediate impact will be on people who rely on Medicaid for their health care, and it is predicted over 10 million people will lose their health insurance as a result. Seniors with dual coverage will remain insured through Medicare, but will have much less coverage.

But here is an important fact that is not receiving much attention. The adverse impact of the drastic cuts to Medicaid will not be limited to Medicaid recipients. All seniors, as well as younger people, will be affected. Why do I say this? Many rural hospitals are primarily funded by Medicaid and are at risk of closing. The impact on everyone living in rural areas, including all seniors, could be devastating.

Even in urban and suburban areas, every hospital receives substantial funding from Medicaid, and this income will be reduced by the new law. What will be the result? Hospitals will feel pressured to increase billing charges across the board. Copays for insured patients will likely increase. Seniors will end up having to pay more for their health care even if they are not on Medicaid. Quality of care and service could also suffer as hospital revenue declines.

Long term care facilities will face similar financial pressures as Medicaid funding is slashed. Many old folks reside in these care facilities, or will need to as our years accumulate. The new law also allows nursing homes and long term care facilities to reduce staffing levels. Having fewer facilities available, at higher costs, with less staff, is not a prospect most people would describe as “beautiful.”

While Medicare is not explicitly targeted, the new law forces a $490 billion reduction in Medicare spending between 2027 and 2034. This decrease is not optional. It is mandated by a 2010 law known as S-PAYGO. What will happen when Medicare spending is reduced? I’m not a rocket scientist, thank goodness, and you’re probably not either. But we learned how to do subtraction in grade school. We know that when you take money away, you end up with less.

*    *    *

I have just scratched the surface of how old folks will fare under the new law. Almost 5 million seniors are dependent on SNAP food benefits, and this program is being scaled way back. In-home care services will become harder to access and of lower quality. And other problems are waiting in the wings.

So, my fellow seniors, we have our work cut out for us. We need to speak up and speak out, in defense of our future. And in defense of our children’s and grandchildren’s futures. We old folks carry a certain air of, shall we say, gravitas which enables us to speak more powerfully than the volume of our voices.

The cuts made by the new law do not go into effect until after the 2026 midterm elections, which confirms the architects of these cuts knew how unpopular they will be. Our job is to make sure the new Congress elected next year will put a stop to these cuts before they start. We need to make sure the legacy we leave the future generations is not a return to the 19^th century.

If you enjoyed reading this post, please consider forwarding it to friends who may be interested or posting a link to your social media feed. Also, if you are not yet a subscriber, it is an easy way to be notified of future posts, which I upload once or twice a month. Just enter your email address below, then check your email for a return message that requires a confirmatory click to complete the process. Subscriptions are free and no advertising will come your way.

June 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Natalia Blauth

As I look back over my blog posts from the past few years, it seems I may be whining excessively about growing old. Complaining. Bellyaching. Moaning about the challenges. I do not mean to come across that way. There is much to celebrate about aging. It is far better to grow old than to not grow old, if you catch my drift.

And we do enjoy many nice perks. We get lower ticket prices at the movies, if we can forego our afternoon nap to go in the middle of the day. We get senior discounts on public transit and when entering national parks. It is fun to play with our grandchildren, knowing our responsibilities will end at 5:00 pm. And it’s even more fun when we indulge their requests for cookies and ice cream, then return them to their parents just as sugar-fueled hyperactivity takes over.

There are many such bennies available only to the older generations. As time goes by, I am coming to realize that one of the nicest advantages is we no longer need to “sweat the big stuff.” When we were young, say under age 50, a common piece of wisdom from the experts (today they’re called influencers, I suppose) was, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” This advice implied we should spend more time and energy on life’s most important matters. We should focus on the big stuff. Things like jobs, and whether to stay in our job or look for another one. Who to marry and how to make the marriage successful. How best to raise responsible and loving children and help usher them out into the real world. What kind of home to live in, and where. Assisting our aging parents as they moved onwards.

These goals and challenges certainly do constitute the big stuff. And when we were young it was appropriate to spend more time on these matters than on items of less consequence, like why we weren’t invited to a friend’s party or which summer blockbuster movie was the best.

But the years pass by, we grow old, and the tables turn.

For seniors, at least for many of us, the big stuff gradually recedes in importance. For the most part we no longer need to spend time and energy on life’s major challenges. Questions around marriage are largely off the table. Ditto for responsible child-rearing. What to do as far as job and career – non-issues. What kind of home to live in, and where – these might still require some temporary attention, for example whether to move into a supportive living community, or downsize, or move closer to children or grandchildren. But once these questions get answered, they typically require little subsequent attention. Seniors move less often than young folks.

To sum up, old folks no longer need to dwell on the big stuff. And this sure takes a load off. The one notable exception is health problems. Those can take over our lives at any moment, driving everything else into the background. In this post, I am talking about seniors who are lucky enough to not yet be in that situation.

So what should we seniors be focusing on? We don’t want to appear to be aimless souls, drifting around with no purpose or goals. In our golden years, I feel it is appropriate for us to switch to “sweating the small stuff.” Like whether to cook tonight or order from a takeout place. Whether to clear out and organize the bathroom drawers today or tomorrow. Or is next month perhaps a better option? How much longer can we go without cleaning the car before driving around town becomes embarrassing? Whether to watch the fourth episode of “Adolescence” tonight or tomorrow. Small things like these.

(Side note: Adolescence, on Netflix, is the best thing to appear on television in years. The acting, the story, and the ideas it explores are amazing, and its one-take one-camera filming technique is breathtaking. The icing on the cake is it consists of only four one-hour episodes. That is an ideal length for us seniors. Our attention span and memory limitations are way too challenged to watch programs like Game of Thrones with its, what, 400 episodes and 38 major characters to keep track of.)

The nice thing about sweating the small stuff is we can do so without actually breaking a sweat. The little everyday challenges we face will not make or break our days. Nor do we lose sleep over them. And it can even be fun to make small decisions about small stuff, because there are rarely wrong choices. Either way we decide, things will be fine.

Sweating the small stuff can even be rewarding. When I decide to go to the hardware store tomorrow instead of today, it opens up new possibilities to explore. Maybe I can sit on the couch and finish my book club book this afternoon. Or if it turns out I get distracted and don’t read the book, well, no big deal. Maybe I can use my free time to knock down cobwebs from the plants in our yard instead. Or should I spend more time trying to learn another language? So many options. Like they say, nothing ventured, much gained. Let’s see, did I get that right?

For us seniors, our decades spent in the workplace, raising family, and making important life decisions, earned us the right to shift our focus to easier matters. Thank goodness there is plenty of small stuff we can focus our limited energy on.

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May 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Doug Nealy

Aging is mighty peculiar. Even a lifetime of prep work and experience does not fully prepare us old folks for what we encounter. Starting around age 65, give or take, we find ourselves entering a new world, familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. We may look around and recognize our surroundings. But many aspects of our environment have changed. These alterations happen subtly, slowly. Eventually it becomes apparent that our roles, our interactions, our abilities, our path forward, all have shifted.

Growing old involves many phenomena we need to understand, including biology, cognition, economic status, cultural shifts, family dynamics, technological challenges, and others. But today I want to focus on a more limited, though very important topic. I want to discuss the nature of gravity.

Gravity is a weighty subject. It was first uncovered in 1670 by English physicist Robert Hooke. Isaac Newton subsequently developed a formula to describe how gravity operates. He said the force of gravitational attraction between two objects depends on the mass of each object and the distance between them. Albert Einstein later introduced some modifications to the concept of gravity, but the initial idea has largely stood the test of time.

Until now.

In analyzing gravity, these brilliant scientists neglected to include a third key element: the age of objects significantly influences the force that gravity exerts upon them.

Let me explain. As I advance further into my senior years, it has become very apparent that gravity’s force is not constant over time. Older objects – especially human beings – are subject to stronger gravitational force than younger objects. And the older a person gets, the more the gravitational force increases. Physical objects can also be impacted, as I will explain below.

This strengthening of gravitational fields shows up in many realms.

First, the human body. Many parts of my physical structure are being pulled downwards towards the center of the earth more powerfully than when I was younger. My facial skin, my neck, my abdomen, my rear end – all of them are sagging. And the drooping is progressing. Also, my spine is tending to bend forward more. I have lost an inch in height.

What accounts for these phenomena? There is no doubt they are due to my body experiencing a stronger gravitational force now than it did several decades ago. And what would cause gravity to become more powerful?

Newton’s formula only looked at two elements, mass and distance. These two elements do not explain the way my body is increasingly sagging downward as the years pass by. My face does not weigh more now than earlier in life. Ditto for my neck. OK, my abdomen has a tad more mass than before, but surely its increased sagging is not due strictly to that fact. And the distance between me and the center of the earth has not changed.

My hypothesis, which I have validated through extensive real world observations of people in older age groups, is that gravity exerts a stronger force on people as they age, even if their mass and the earth’s mass remain constant, and the distance between them does not change.

*    *    *

The increasing force of gravity with age shows up in other aspects of daily living as well. Many objects that older people interact with grow heavier over time. The same pots and pans we have used for years for cooking weigh more now than they used to. And have you noticed that a large soup pot filled with liquid weighs much more than it did before? The mass of the soup stock has not changed, so why is it heavier now? Packed suitcases weigh more now and are harder to lug around, even when they contain the same amount of clothes. Two-year-old granddaughters are heavier now than ten years ago, even though scales purport to show they had the same weight at the same age.

What accounts for this phenomenon? I’m not a physicist, so I can only guess. My suspicion is that the increased gravitational force which affects people as they age is transmitted to any object the older person touches. As soon as an oldster comes in contact with something, gravity’s force on that physical object increases commensurate with its increased force on the old person touching it, and this happens immediately. Makes sense, right?

*    *    *

Growing old is both challenging and wondrous. We encounter many new and unexpected developments, some good, and some not. Some are foreseeable, and some are not.

There are many days when the challenges of navigating the novel land of aging appear overwhelming. The benefits can seem far removed. But I try to approach growing old with a sense of optimism. I like to see the glass as one-quarter full. And I celebrate the magical discoveries we sometimes stumble upon. When I was younger, I would never have thought that gravity’s force would become stronger as we age. Just imagine, simply by growing old, we have forced the modification of a 400-year old law of physics.

Boomers should consider submitting our application for the Nobel Prize in Physics. But that will need to wait until after we figure out how to heft that box of rarely-used household goods onto the top shelf at the back of the closet.

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April 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Christian Wiediger

Growing old has common features which affect all of us lucky enough to be ambling down the road. We lose stamina and energy. Our joints stiffen. Our hearing and eyesight tend to flicker and fade. Our memories become a bit sketchy. We have a hard time keeping up with new technology. The pace of these changes varies from one senior to another, though none of us are immune from these functional declines.

But a peculiar phenomenon I have noticed in myself is I frequently experience variations in how old I feel compared to how old I am. My subjective experience of aging sometimes conflicts with my objective experience of aging. Objectively I am aging at a very steady clip. No matter what I do, no matter what I want, next month I will be 73 years and 11 months old, while this month I am a more youthful 73 years and 10 months old. And the following month the chimes will strike 74. The clock stops for no one. But though the weeks and months tick by at a steady pace, there are periods when I feel like I’m in my 50s. And there are other times I feel like I’m in my 80s. These differences often show up for no apparent rhyme or reason.

A few weeks ago I went through a spell of feeling a good deal younger than my birth certificate suggested was appropriate. I have no clue why. My sleep pattern hadn’t changed. Nor had my eating, or exercising, or stress levels. I just felt perkier and bouncier. I was able to do more decluttering around the house and weed-killing in the yard with no loss of energy. My mind felt focused and sharp. I even thought for a few days that aging isn’t all that burdensome. I have experienced similar periods over the past several years. For a few days or a few weeks, I felt younger and brighter.

But all good things must come to an end. Each time, my subjective experience of aging fell back into alignment with my biological age.

And then there are times when I feel older than my actual age. These periods also do not seem attributable to changes in activity or lifestyle. They drop down out of the blue, as though I am suddenly required to wear a 30-pound cape all day. I grow exhausted after cleaning out one cabinet. My knees protest when walking up the stairs. I have a hard time focusing on the book for my next book club meeting and can’t remember the characters or the plot. By 9:00 pm I need to hit the sack. While in one of these phases, I ruminate on how unfair it is that aging capriciously accelerates, even though I did nothing wrong.

Fortunately, bad things can also come to an end, at least occasionally. So far each of these episodes resolved – for no apparent reason – and I successfully returned to an energy state appropriate to my biological age.

I do not recall such variations occurring in my earlier years, at least not of any significance. Up to roughly age 60, my subjective experience of aging tended to align with my objective process of aging. I certainly had an occasional day when I was more tired, but this was usually due to losing sleep one night or overdoing it with some sort of physical activity. And I enjoyed occasional days I felt more energetic, often because of something exciting going on. These highs and lows were ephemeral, dissipating much quicker than the variations I experience now, as an old guy.

I think this variability between subjective and objective aging is shared by many oldsters. What accounts for these ups and downs? Is there a biolgocial basis for it? Perhaps some variations in cellular metabolism due to changes in various hormone levels? Does mitochondrial shortening and lengthening play a role? It would be fascinating to examine this phenomenon through some scientifically-sound medical studies to determine if this is all in our heads. Or all in our bodies. Or a bit of both. But we will need to wait a while before such studies might be funded. With the government slashing funding for pediatric cancer research, it is not likely studies on why seniors feel older some days and younger on others will see an infusion of federal dollars.

Growing old is truly a mysterious and quirky process. It is humbling and inspiring. It is gratifying and mortifying. Life in old age shares much in common with life in our younger years. But it also has unique features which can be hard to comprehend.

I periodically remind myself that to make progress down the trail, I must keep putting one foot in front of the other. During some periods I might feel slower than a tortoise. And at other times I might feel speedier than a jackrabbit. But it is a blessing to still be moving forward, approaching the horizon, in the company of so many others.

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March 2025

By Richard Fleming

Photo courtesy of Alexander Grey

The Covid pandemic began to devastate the U.S. and the world in March 2020. It was five years ago this month. Like a lot of people, I had shelved many of my recollections about the pandemic in the back of my hippocampus, the area of our brain where memories are stored. I stopped thinking about Covid. My time and energy shifted to focusing on how to live in old age.

But five-year anniversaries are significant. To mark the occasion, the media recently began presenting articles on life during the pandemic and how it changed our country in profound ways which reverberate to the present.

Reading these stories reconnected me to the pandemic. And they made me a bit surprised by how remote it had come to feel. I was only 68 years old when it started. That feels like a lifetime ago. I posted previously about how time accelerates as we age. A year now flashes by in about six months. So why does the pandemic seem far in the past? When people live through haunting and ominous experiences, memory repression is one way of coping. But with the arrival of the five-year anniversary, it may be time to excavate some pandemic memories to seek lessons, especially as they relate to the older generations. What follows are selective and incomplete assessments. I welcome learning from your reflections. Please feel free to post them in the comments section.

I want to start with the powerful emotional and subjective feelings I experienced in the early months of Covid, then move on to more objective analyses.

As I think back, I remember how humbling, scary, and confusing it was to realize how vulnerable we all were: my family, my friends and neighbors, our whole society, and of course myself. The early months of Covid were unquestionably the most unsettling and uncertain time in my 73 years. How many of us were going to die? No one could say. How long before the pandemic would ease up enough to allow family get togethers? No one could know. Would we ever resume what was previously known as “normal everyday life”? No one was certain.

As the months and years went by, answers to these questions emerged. The uncertainty and fear started to subside. And the lessons we could learn or, more precisely, should learn, began to crystallize.

*    *    *

Maintaining the public’s health requires an effective system of public health. As the virus spread from community to community and state to state, as the death toll rose into the hundreds of thousands, it uncovered the reality that health care in the U.S. suffers from what I will call “three poors.” It is poorly-organized, poorly-financed, and poorly-available to many people.

Testing, treatment, and – after they became available – vaccinations were not well deployed. Rollout of prevention and therapeutic measures was chaotic and inconsistent. Medical equipment was often not available. While large amounts of money flow into our health care system, too much ends up as profits for the private sector. Not enough pays for actual medical care. If our government spent its health care dollars more effectively, the total costs would likely drop. And too many people in our country either have no health insurance or inadequate coverage. People with poor access to quality medical care had worse outcomes during the pandemic.

When healthcare and science become infected with politics and mistruths, everyone suffers. It did not take long after the virus started its rampage that shysters and grifters began trying to profit from the suffering. They had supplements to sell. They promoted unproven and disproven remedies. They could only succeed by undermining trust in expertise and science. And many politicians tried to wield the pandemic as a weapon to retain power.

Many of the efforts to undermine science were justified as, “I’m just asking questions.” But just asking questions, whether about vaccines, medications, or how Covid spreads, only fueled skepticism about what infectious disease experts were saying.

Another common theme was, “Do your own research.” Right, as if a person could go on the internet and after half an hour discover “facts” that infectious disease experts with decades of experience were supposedly trying to cover up.

Science evolves as experience is gained and studies are performed. Covid-19 was a novel coronavirus, and physicians’ understanding of how it was transmitted, what it did to the human body, how to limit its spread, and how to treat it advanced over time. But rather than viewing this developing understanding as confirmation of science’s ongoing quest for truth, Covid deniers claimed it proved that scientists were dishonest and that influencers and podcasters had a better understanding of the pandemic.

These attacks on medicine had impacts in the real world. Covid infections, hospitalizations, and mortality were significantly higher in regions of the country where more people were just asking questions and just doing their own research.

During a pandemic, individualism harms community health. Many people believed it was their individual right and their sole decision whether to mask; take precautions around family, friends, and neighbors; and get vaccinated. But when dealing with a deadly virus spread easily through the air, each individual’s personal decisions can and do impact the health of others. Many people who were very careful and followed the advice of public health experts died from Covid because members of their communities were exercising their personal freedom.

Old folks are viewed by many as dispensable. It became clear early on in the pandemic that older people were more vulnerable to bad outcomes from Covid infections. Younger people were not immune from serious problems, but the risks were far lower. This reality unveiled some disturbing opinions. A viewpoint which emerged early on and seemed to gain strength with every passing month said the best way to handle the pandemic was for old people to isolate themselves at home and let society carry on as usual. People espousing this outlook felt protecting old folks was too great a cost, not just in medical expenses, but in economic and business activity. For some, any limitations on going to clubs, parties, restaurants, and entertainment venues were too painful to contemplate. Since old people had already lived their lives and would be dying fairly soon anyway, why adopt extreme measures which would hurt the younger generations?

*    *    *

Summarizing the lessons I hope we have learned:

• The pandemic should serve as a siren call that our health care system needs to improve and insurance coverage should become universal and affordable.
• Infectious diseases do not respond well when evidence-based medicine is attacked and politicized. Viral social media posts do not facilitate treatment of viral diseases.
• If we recognize we live in a community, we are more willing to make small sacrifices to protect that group. We come to understand that when one part of the community is harmed, everyone else in the community will also be harmed. Sooner. Or. Later.
• A society willing to sacrifice its elders on the altar of preserving business activity and unencumbered lifestyles would be a sad place in which to live. And not just for old people.

But have we learned these lessons? How will we respond the next time? There are many dangerous bugs out there, one or two mutations away from becoming easily transmissible among humans. Ebola, mpox, hemorrhagic fever, bird flu, paramyxovirus, and many others are lurking, waiting. And there are bugs which can already spread among people, like measles and multi-drug-resistant TB, which could become pandemic problems if we drop our guard. The recent cuts to U.S. funding for health services overseas and the continuing campaigns against vaccinations and simple safety precautions domestically makes the spread of such infections more likely.

When one of these pathogens starts to spread among us, how will we respond?

Will science and expertise be embraced or ignored?

Will individual liberty and free choice trump community health and safety?

Will older and more vulnerable people be viewed as worthy of protection, or as too expensive and therefore expendable?

If you appreciated reading this post, please consider sending it to friends who may be interested or posting a link to your social media feed. Also, if you are not yet a subscriber, it is an easy way to be notified of future posts, which I upload once or twice a month. Just enter your email address below, then check your email for a return message that requires a confirmatory click to complete the process. Subscriptions are free and no advertising will come your way.