by Barry Phegan | Dec 2, 2020 | Aging, Living Life
A friend invited me to join an online Zoom panel titled, “My Philosophy”. I demurred because I wasn’t sure I had a philosophy (of life). It turns out that I do. It’s a set of beliefs about what is a Person, and some insights I have on one particular person,...
by Barry Phegan | Oct 31, 2020 | Aging, Social comment
Conflicting cultural norms and expectations can spring up in unexpected places. Spilled movie-popcorn led me to rethink some lifelong assumptions and question my wisdom. Scene (Part I): Conflict in the Lobby It’s pre-COVID. I’m at the movie theater with my...
by Barry Phegan | Jun 30, 2020 | Aging, Living Life, Social comment
Sometimes a simple event transforms a person’s anxiety into elation. I’ve learned that I can be that transformer for my grandchildren. In our all-too-busy consumer culture, where life may at times feel like a task, I’ll parachute into my grandson’s...
by Barry Phegan | Mar 20, 2020 | Aging, Living Life, Social comment
Thursday, 3/12/2020 — Ambivalence Just one week ago, I flew from San Francisco airport to Seattle airport, then on to Wenatchee, WA, where my daughter and two grandchildren live. I’d waffled for days, “Should I go? What is the risk? If I don’t go now would...
by Barry Phegan | Feb 29, 2020 | Aging, Living Life, Social comment, Uncategorized
Loneliness is a national epidemic and it’s killing us. Social isolation is more lethal than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. It increases inflammation, heart disease, dementia, and death rates. It’s linked to our opioid epidemic and soaring suicide rates. Despite...
by Barry Phegan | Feb 12, 2020 | Aging, Living Life, Social comment
A friend loaned me her copy of Gratitude (Knopf, 2019) by Oliver Sacks. Its spare 40 pages hold four beautiful little essays, each a memory or reflection written by Sacks in the closing years and months of his life. Though each essay yields many...
