Changing Aging: Most Recent Articles

10 Affordable Places to Retire on the Water

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:01:00 -0600

Not one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes made the list of "Affordable Places on the Water to Retire" by U.S. News and World Report. Here's the magazine's top picks:

•Bella Vista, Ark.
•Bismarck, N.D.
•Cape Coral, Fla.
•Dover, Del.
•Dubuque, Iowa
•Fairhope, Ala.
•Lake Jackson, Texas
•Loveland, Colo.
•Richland, Wash.
•Traverse City, Mich.

Toyota Commercial - Something I've Never Seen

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:39:00 -0600

The other morning during the TODAY Show (not cheap ad space) an ad ran for the Toyota RAV 4. You know how some commercials portray "real people" or "tell stories?" This ad featured a home care nurse, sharing how she drives a lot for her job. And then it showed her driving in her new Toyota RAV 4 to one of her customer's homes - a senior woman. I've never seen that portrayal in a major TV ad spot.

Good job, Toyota.

Tatoos for all Ages

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:21:00 -0600

Photo by Bruce Bisping, Star Tribune

"Getting a tattoo is just something I've always wanted to do; I've seen so many pretty ones," said Millie Gignac, 89, a former benefits director for Sperry Univac, founder of its retirees club and a volunteer for Dakota County social services and the Minnesota Historical Society. "At my age, I thought I'd better get going. After I got mine, the gal next door got one, too, on her back."

Her interest in tattoos might have seemed remarkable even 10 years ago, but no more. Good for Millie. Read more about Millie and "permanent milestones" this Minneapolis Star Tribune story.

Transforming the Aging Experience by Eskaton

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:14:00 -0500

Aging is a movement . . .

Eskaton, which provides senior housing and services in Northern California, is Changing Aging in America. For a great resource, we encourage you to download their new vision book: Transforming the Aging Experience. As Todd Murch, their president and CEO wrote to fellow transformationalists:

Unique from many other human conditions, aging does not discriminate. It is as inclusive as it is inevitable. So whether received as a conversation starter, a catalyst or an action plan, Eskaton's confidence in publishing "Transforming the Aging Experience" comes from the perspective that providing for a rapidly aging population is an economic, social, moral and timely imperative.

Interior Design and Senior Housing Development - What Opportunity for Community Connections

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:27:00 -0500

There's a reason not just anyone does interior design in new Ecumen senior housing communities. There is an art and science to the labor of love of design. In this post in Ecumen's senior housing development blog, our interior design team member Jill Schroeder shares insights on going "local" to create better design and community.

Our interior design team members add a myriad of very creative, local touches, such as local ranch branding irons incorporated into the stairwells on our recent Idaho project, historic local photos seamlessly integrated throughout our rehabilitation center in Duluth, Minn., and local anglers and other perspectives in the new Trillium Memory Care Community for our client North Country Health Services in Bemidji, Minn.

2009 Purpose Prize Winners Announced by Civic Ventures

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:17:00 -0500

This year's winners of The Purpose Prize, a $100,000 award for social innovators in their encore careers, are using a new stage of life to do extraordinary things to improve life for millions of people worldwide.

They include:

A former telecom executive who helped wire an Appalachian county and brought laid-off factory workers back to profitable farming.
A professor who invented a way to transform toxic fly ash into green bricks.
A psychiatrist who helps saves soldiers' lives by offering free mental health treatment.
A former NASA exec who works to treat alcoholism in Native American communities by reviving old customs and traditions.
A couple who honor their son, killed on 9/11, by helping to bring mental health services to countries ravaged by terrorism, violence and war.

These people – and five other $50,000 winners – are social entrepreneurs over 60 who are using their experience and passion to take on society's biggest challenges. Now in its fourth year, the six-year, $17 million program is the nation's only large-scale investment in social innovators in the second half of life.

The winners and 1,000-plus nominees in 2009 underscore a trend in entrepreneurialism later in life. According to studies by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the 55-64 age group is the most active in creating new ventures. Counter to stereotype, people ages 20-34, the study found, are the least entrepreneurial.

"More than ever, the problems facing our communities, our country and our world call out for creative solutions," said Marc Freedman, co-founder of The Purpose Prize and author of Encore: Finding Work That Matters in the Second Half of Life. "Fortunately, we don't run out of ideas as we age.

"Like so many others in this new stage of life between the end of midlife careers and the beginning of true old age, The Purpose Prize winners combine creativity, experience and passion with a desire to do something bigger than themselves," Freedman continued.

The Encore Careers campaign is run by Civic Ventures, a national think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. Funding for The Purpose Prize comes from The Atlantic Philanthropies and the John Templeton Foundation.

Sherry Lansing, CEO of the Sherry Lansing Foundation and former chair of Paramount Pictures' Motion Picture Group, chairs the jury that selected this year's winners. The 24 judges are leaders in business, politics, journalism and the nonprofit sector – including actor Sidney Poitier, social entrepreneur Thomas Tierney, former Senator Harris Wofford and journalist Cokie Roberts.

The winners and 49 Purpose Prize Fellows of 2009 will be honored at a Summit on Innovation on Oct. 31 – Nov. 1 at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business' Center on Social Innovation, one of the world's leading academic centers focused on social entrepreneurship.

The 300-plus attendees of the invitation-only event will hear a keynote address from Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Ellen Goodman, and a panel discussion between William Damon (professor of education, director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence, and author of Nobel Purpose: The Joy of Living a Meaningful Life); Philip Zimbardo (professor emeritus, Stanford University, researcher behind the Stanford Prison Experiment, author of The Lucifer Effect and Time Paradox); and Laura Carstensen (professor of psychology, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, and author of A Long Bright Future).

The Purpose Prize is a program of the Encore Careers campaign (www.encore.org), which aims to engage millions of baby boomers in encore careers combining social impact, personal meaning and continued income in the second half of life. The goal: to produce a windfall of human talent to solve society's greatest problems, from education to the environment, health care to homelessness.

Short summaries for all winners are below. Fuller summaries, videos and photographs are online at www.encore.org.

Take Survey for Communities for a Lifetime Legislation in Minnesota

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:22:00 -0500

The Minnesota State Board of Aging seeks your opinions via this survey on how the State of Minnesota should publicly recognize Communities for Lifetime initiatives in Minnesota. This is in response to new Communities for a Lifetime legislation passed by the State Legislature in 2010.

The Board on Aging will use the results of this survey for a Report to the Legislature on options for Minnesota to adopt a Communities for a Lifetime (CFL) recognition program. The survey takes about 10 minutes or less and will close on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2009.

Big Insurers - The New Big Tobacco

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:17:00 -0500

I've always wondered which industry could take over tobacco's spot as America's most reviled. Found it: Insurers. Although there are a lot of good people who work in insurance, the big insurers' trade association leaders are killing the profession's reputation. Unless their "leaders" meaningfully come to the table in this health care discussion, they're going to have a lot of work to do to enhance how people view them nationally.

Here's one such example from long-term care, that illustrates tone deafness occurring in the insurance industry right now. So the American Concil of Life Insurers (ACLI) led by former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating has been blasting the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Plan (CLASS). A few excerpts from a letter Keating wrote to Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius:

ACLI: ACLI supports the goal of the CLASS Program to help adults with severe functional impairments obtain the services and supports they need to maintain their independence, while providing them with choices about community participation, education and emploument.

Ecumen: Appreciate your support of the goals ACLI. Then work with senior services and disability advocates and others to include the CLASS Plan in health care reform.

ACLI: However, we are concerned that the $50 a day benefit provided to workers would be wholly inadequate to cover the full cost of their potential long-term care needs.

Ecumen: From the outset this was never designed to pay for everything. It sure would help to get an extra $18,000+ per year, though wouldn't it? I It also might make people more likely to buy a supplement policy from one of your members for full coverage. Geez, you've been selling this product for 30 years and it's still fledgling with 5% pick up nationally. Let's try something different - it could get you more sales - and empower people to live better lives. And it would lead to authenticity in your organization's tagline: Financial Security. For Life.

ACLI: CLASS Act enrollees may well avoid exploring long-term care insurance, only to be surprised how little coverage they have at their most vulnerable moment.

Ecumen: And that's different from today or the 29 years prior that you've been selling the product? See note on supplemental policies above.

ACLI: Moreover, the CLASS Act is actuarially unsound.

Ecumen: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the CLASS Act’s net effect on the federal budget would be
to reduce the budget deficit by about $74 billion during the 2010–2019 period.4 These estimates are based
on an average monthly premium of $123 and a cash daily benefit of $75 for life, with no underwriting, that
preserves the program’s solvency for 75 years. It also assumes the premium amount would not change
once an individual enrolls, however the benefit payment would rise each year with inflation. The CBO also
estimates a reduction in Medicaid spending over 10 years because some individuals who would receive
CLASS benefits would otherwise have had Medicaid pay for those long-term services and supports. The
estimated reduction in the federal budget deficit over the 10 year period is the result of the five-year vesting
requirement; the payout of benefits would not begin until 2016, five years after the initial enrollment in 2011.

Mr. Keating, please become part of the solution and grasp opportunites in the CLASS Plan: There can be a great deal of common ground here. You can increase your members' 5% sales rate, improve people's lives and enhance your industry's reputation at the same time. There's still time for you to write another letter . . .

For more on the CLASS Plan, go to this forum held in Washington, D.C. recently by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Alzheimer's Rate - Completely Mind Boggling

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:09:00 -0500

Wouldn't it be great if the Ecumen team members above and thousands of others didn't have to do an Alzheimer's Walk? Wouldn't it be great if we could close all of our memory care housing? Wouldn't it be great if the cure for Alzheimer's were here?

We know the answers to those questions. Now comes new information from the Alzheimer's Association's 2009 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures Report. This is amazing stuff. It impacts those kids to the left just as it impact us who are older:

- By 2010, there will be nearly a half million new cases of Alzheimer’s each year. By 2050, that number will double to nearly a million new cases per year.

- As many as 5.3 million people in the United States are living with Alzheimer’s disease.
Every 70 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s disease.

- Alzheimer’s is now the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States, surpassing diabetes; it is the fifth-leading cause of death among individuals 65 and older, following heart disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and stroke.

-The National Academy of Sciences estimates that an additional 3.5 million health-care workers will be required by 2030 just to maintain current levels of staffing for Alzheimer’s care demands.

- Total healthcare costs are more than three times higher for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias than for other people age 65 and older.

Video: Insights on Aging From Ecumen Customers

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:27:00 -0500

Ecumen intern Ellen Burkhardt sat down with several Ecumen customers in Maplewood, Minn. and got their insights on aging.

Questions include:

- Any insights for people having anxieties about growing older?

- What are keys to successful aging?

- What's your advice for nearing retirement?

- What tips do you have on living fully?

We also invite you to read the insights of our team members and customers in 50 Tips for Aging Gracefully.

Why are all the REALLY Old People Women?

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 18:18:00 -0500

Sarah Kliff, senior reporter at Newsweek did some interesting research to address the question: Why are all the really old people women? Sixty-eight of the 72 known "supercentenarians" (people 110 and older) are female, even though there are more boys than girls born each year.

Here's what she came up with for reasons - do you agree? Any others you'd put? Also, for 50 Ways to Age Gracefully, go here (these are from Ecumen customers and employees)

The danger years
The difference between male and female death rates peaks between ages 20 and 24—during which men are six times as likely to be murdered and five times as likely to die of a non-automobile accident.

Toxic testosterone
The hormone increases levels of bad cholesterol (known as LDL) and decreases levels of good cholesterol (HDL), while estrogen does just the opposite.

Gunplay
Whether it's homicide, suicide, or by accident, men are five times more likely to die by firearms than women.

Drop-dead diseases
Fatal conditions like cancer and heart disease are common among men, while women are more likely to suffer from chronic nonfatal conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, and autoimmune disorders.

Overwhelming emotions
The tendency to ignore signs of depression and emotional distress may account for the fact that, between the ages of 75 and 79, men are nine times more likely to commit suicide.

Mrs. Brady's Tech Support for Older Adults

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:58:00 -0500

Actress Florence Henderson, best known as the mom from The Brady Bunch, launched THE FLOH CLUB last month, a telephone-based technical support service that aims to empower older adults. After years of sticking her head in the sand when it came to computers, one of America's favorite TV moms wanted technology to be simple. "I know a lot of people my age who are real computer buffs," Florence observes. "Still, so many older adults, who did not grow up with this technology, find computers daunting and frustrating." They feel it's beyond their abilities to use computers the way younger people do and are often hesitant to ask for help, not wanting to be a bother. The Floh Club was created to focus on the needs, concerns, and interests of people who didn't grow up with computer technology and uses patient and friendly North American-based support experts.

Floh Club members receive any-time support for computer issues big and small, like setting up a printer, learning to use Facebook, or how to check financial and stock performance online. Membership fees vary - from 24.99/month or $249.99 annually, to a one-time "Empowerment Session" for assistance with something like iPod setup and digital music downloading or how to videoconference with Skype.

Hats off to this 75-year old actress-turned-entrepeneur for helping to empower seniors! ~Helen Rickman

Let's Stop These Kind of Stories - Please Join us Today in Support of The CLASS Plan

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:53:00 -0500

Please read the excerpt below from this National Public Radio story. If you want to do help do something about this right now, please join us in doing two things today:

1. Call (800) 958-5374 before 5 p.m. Central and urge your senators to contact Sen. Harry Reid in support of the CLASS Plan. When you call, the operator will ask you to say your state's name and will then transfer you automatically to one of your senator's offices.

2. Register for Ecumen's Changing Aging grassroots network here.

Thank you!

Donna Taylor's father was the rock of the family. He was the primary caregiver for his disabled wife and her elderly mother. But he got sick and went into the hospital for 10 days. When he got out, he couldn't walk.

Taylor, 41, and her siblings — all of whom had families and children of their own — helped out. But with three elderly, disabled adults in one house, caregiving got expensive. Taylor says her father was surprised at how quickly the family went through its savings.

"He said, 'I worked and I did the right things. I had a pension and I put money away in savings and I had what I thought were the right insurances and the money didn't go far enough.' It just, it just wasn't enough."

When Insurance Isn't Enough

Like most Americans, Taylor's parents believed that Medicare and their private health insurance would pay all the costs of living in a nursing home. It doesn't. Medicare, the federal health insurance for the elderly and disabled, paid the full cost of her father's first 20 days in a rehabilitation nursing home for therapy to try to get him walking again.

But Medicaid, the state and federal insurance program for the poor, does pay for someone to stay long-term in a nursing home. So Taylor told her father he'd have to spend through the rest of his savings, go into poverty, and qualify for Medicaid.

"If you have ever had to look in the eyes of a 64-year-old man who has now had to live in a nursing home, and it's horrible," she says. "And he never ever made me feel bad about that decision. He never said, 'Donna why'd you do this to me?' But he told me, 'This isn't how it was supposed to work out.'"

Taylor's father died in that Phoenix nursing home last year. The nursing home is part of Arizona Baptist Retirement Centers, where Taylor works as an executive vice president. Taylor thinks her father sort of gave up on life.

Better Options

Proposals written into health care overhaul legislation would help families like Donna Taylor's, says John Rother, of the AARP.

One would encourage states to offer more generous benefits to disabled and elderly people on Medicaid who want to stay in their own homes.

And then, says Rother, there's something that could help millions of people. "The CLASS Act," he says, "which was introduced by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, is a way of putting into place, gradually, an insurance approach to long-term care as opposed to the welfare-based approach we have today."

Workers would choose whether to have money deducted from their paychecks. The deduction would, on average, come to about $65 a month and, when needed, it would pay about $75 a day, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. That's a little less than half of what one day in a nursing home costs now.

"The CLASS Act is not designed to protect people from the cost of nursing home care, very expensive care," says Rother. "It's really designed to help you stay independent at home and to get the services you need: home care, Meals on Wheels, visiting nurse. The kind of thing people do need very often to be able to continue to live independently, and, you know, I think that's actually what most of us want."

Please Call Your U.S. Senators on Tuesday, October 13

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:52:00 -0500

It takes just seconds . . . . please call your U.S. Senator today . . . urge them to urge Sen. Harry Reid and make The CLASS Plan (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports Plan) part of health care reform legislation. The health care discussion is at a crucial point. On Tuesday the Senate Finance committee will vote on The Baucus Bill, setting up a future floor vote on health care legislation. We need to help get The CLASS Plan in there . . .

Your Call-In Number

Our colleagues at the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) have arranged a toll-free call-in for Tuesday, Oct. 13 from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern. Please call (800) 958-5374. You will then be asked in which state you live and will be patched in to one of your two Senators' offices.

Please urge your Senator to contact Sen. Harry Reid in support of the CLASS plan.

Thank You for taking this action on behalf of people across the country committed to Changing Aging for the better.

Sample Script

(If you're calling Sen. Klobuchar and Sen. Franken from Minnesota, please also thank them for their support of The CLASS Plan.)

Hello. I am calling to ask Senator [INSERT SENATOR's LAST NAME] to contact Sen. Harry Reid and urge him to make sure that the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) provisions are included in the final health care reform legislation. People need help accessing the long-term services and supports required to remain independent and at home. I thank Senator [INSERT LAST NAME] in advance for the support, and I look forward to a response.

Join Ecumen and AAHSA for a U.S. Senate Call-In Day on Oct. 13th

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:26:00 -0500

Help us make long-term services and supports affordable for all Americans. Join the Ecumen Changing Aging Advocacy Network and join us and others for a U.S. Senate call-in day on Tuesday, October 13th.

It takes just seconds.

On Tuesday, October 13th, we will be joining senior services and disability advocates around the country in support of long-term care financing reform. Our message to our Senators: Tell Sen. Harry Reid to ensure that the Community Assistance Services and Support plan (CLASS) is included as part of health care reform.

Thanks to our colleagues at the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), which is making this call-in day possible.

When Will Target Stores Embrace Aging?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:19:00 -0500

When will Target Stores, which prides itself as a trend-setter for youth embrace the timeless trend of aging?

Michael Graves gets "design." But the superstar designer also gets aging and living with the challenges of physical disability. For years he has put his stamp on new wave tea kettles more than 1,000 other items for Target. Now he's putting his touch on design for products for seniors and other people living with disabilities through a company called Drive Medical.

Graves, 75, is paralyzed below the waist. A meningitis bout took away his use of his legs in 2003. According to a recent AP story, the famed architect says he became "an instant expert" on difficulties facing people with disabilities.

But Graves said his disability was not the reason Drive Medical approached him about designing a new logo, which led to the company asking Graves to design a line of new products in 2004.

"I'm not even sure they knew I was in a wheelchair at the time," Graves recalled.

The line began small in 2006, with a Graves-designed heating pad, and recently expanded to include bath benches and bathtub rails.

Two of those Drive Medical devices are on display at a Minneapolis Institute of Arts exhibit celebrating Graves' 40-plus years as a designer, architect and artist. The exhibition, which opened in late August, is housed in the three-story, $50 million Graves-designed Target Wing addition that opened at the MIA in 2006. Called "From Towers to Teakettles: Michael Graves Architecture and Design," the exhibit runs through Jan. 3, 2010.

One of the Drive Medical devices on display is an adjustable bathtub rail that clamps to the edge of the tub. In contrast to the stainless steel grab rails usually seen in institutional settings, Graves' offering is a soft blue oval ring set onto a metal frame clad in white plastic with a bright orange knob for adjustments.

A sleek silver Graves-designed collapsible cane that folds into a black bag also is on display.

Drive Medical spokesman Edward Link said the Port Washington, N.Y.-based company was looking for an acclaimed designer who could remove the "medicinal look" of health-care products.

Graves has designed about a dozen products for Drive Medical in three areas: bathroom safety, including the bath rail and bath and shower seats, which are now available online and in medical specialty stores; mobility, such as the cane; and aids for daily living, such as reachers. The Graves-designed canes and reachers will be rolled out over the next three to six months.

Graves said his Princeton, N.J.-based design group, which has designed more than 1,800 consumer products, thinks "about the whole community" when it starts any product design.

"We don't treat them differently in terms of the human being that's going to hold it, assemble it," Graves said. "Whether you're a young homeowner or you're in a nursing home ...you can open the jar with our jar opener."

Designs for the disabled need to take into account that not everyone with a disability is the same, Graves said. In his own case, Graves said, he suffered spinal pain after his paralysis, and the first wheelchair and minivan he used did not have the right shock absorbers to cushion against bumps.

"Every day is learning for me because I'm in a wheelchair," Graves said, adding that designing for the disabled is rewarding. "I think for me, it's kind of payback."

Target is not currently carrying any of Grave's new products for seniors and others living with disabilities. What a missed opportunity by a company that prides itself on being ahead of the curve.

Marathoner Borrows Catheter On Course to Finish on Top

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:59:00 -0500

Jerry Johncock is one determined guy. The 81-year-old marathoner above (2008 photo by Toni Johncock) found himself at mile 21 of Sunday's Twin Cities Marathon having to go to the bathroom. Here's a summary from Paul Walsh of the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Johncock, who became the first American 80 or over to break the four-hour mark at last year's Twin Cities Marathon, was overcome with discomfort from a full bladder during this year's race. He knew that a blood clot was preventing him from urinating.

With no catheter at the official aid station on East River Road in St. Paul, staffers there were telling the age-groupchampion runner that he would have to drop out and be taken to a hospital.

"I told them, 'I gotta finish this marathon!'" said Johncock, who has run more than 100 marathons since he took up running at age 50 and has never dropped out.

Then from among the spectators, a middle-aged man piped up. "'I have a catheter in my car,'" Johncock recalled his anonymous rescuer saying.

The medical device was retrieved, Johncock entered the first aid van and "a first aid person helped me poke it into my bladder," allowing him to urinate.

"As soon as I got the catheter, I [urinated] and I was good to go," the retired television repairman said. "Oh, what a relief that was."

And yesterday, he learned that he won't be penalized for stepping of the course for assistance. He'll soon receive the $225 prize for finishing first in the 80-84 age group. Congratulations to Jerry Johncock and the Good Samaritan who provided the timely assist.

Senator Klobuchar and Senator Franken Support The CLASS Act

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:02:00 -0500

Thank you to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Senator Al Franken for their support of the national long-term care insurance plan The CLASS Act. Ecumen is an ardent supporter, too. It just makes sense.

Kaiser Foundation columnist Howard Gleckman writes in his blog how The CLASS Act is still very much alive.

Jim Klobuchar -- Pro Football's Threat to Peace and Sanity

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:43:00 -0500

In Texas they recently consecrated a new football stadium so big that some of the 100,000 customers had to turn on GPS coordinates to locate their seats.

The stadium is a 21st Century Temple of Karnak that cost well over a billion dollars and takes up a combined surface and air footage rivaled in America only by the Pentagon to the east and Yellowstone Park to the west.

I confess having written five books on professional football and still harbor a fugitive fondness for the game. It is now a colossus whose nationally televised games are introduced by a cowboy guitar plucker emerging through the sound and fury of a dozen exploding smoke bombs. This is followed by a screeching soprano trying to achieve the scientifically impossible feat of spreading the national anthem over five octaves.

So I watched this game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants more in sadness than hysterics. The game itself is still recognizable and stirring. Usually it is suspenseful, granted that three or four of the interior linemen on each team are now posters for the spreading obesity in America. The rest are swift and often graceful. All are tough, driven athletes, engaged in high stakes games in which millionaire ballplayers hammer each other, and the TV networks produce record ratings and income.

I watched without resentment because it’s essentially America’s game, attracting increasing millions of followers, a game now impossible to avoid. I’ve regretted the disappearance of the more relaxed era of pro football I knew but also enjoyed today’s emergence of women sports journalists in print, on line and on the sidelines. These feelings drift back two or three decades when I taught an annual football class for women for the Minneapolis newspaper. More than 200 knowledge-hungry scholars, average age 35 or 40, crowded the classroom eight times during the season. They learned how to translate the game’s gobbledygook and the difference between a red dog and a hot dog. Borrowing from the quarterback’s cadence, we called it the Hut-Hut Clinic. As The Professor, I gave final exams, which everyone passed. At graduation the Viking coach gave the commencement talk. We annually took field trips by bus to the Viking-Bears game in Soldier Field in Chicago. My students came dressed in those horned Brunhilde helmets, perfect protection when the Bears’ fans tried to pour beer on them.

The game now is bigger, faster, better, more boisterous, possibly more brutal, and glutted with money. It’s a show, and a good one. The personalities are larger than life and pro football is now round the calendar. And yet the best times for me were and are those when you see a core humanity in it and even, strangely, moments of beauty.

Walter Payton was a marvelous football player for the Chicago Bears. He was one of the finest runners ever, a spirited, joyful guy loved by everyone who played with or against him. He was also mischievous. Officials sometimes caught him untying their shoes under the pile. The players called him Sweetness.

He died in his 40s, not that long after his retirement. The hours after his death were filled with a solidarity of grief that united players, coaches and fans and seemed to dissolve the conflicts dividing them. In those hours of mourning, pro football became a community, in faces and voices brought together from TV studios around the country, bound in a remembrance of an extraordinary athlete and good man. He was a football player whose death could reach a harsh and willful man like Mike Ditka and others like him, and touch them with humility. It could reach a stoical and undemonstrative man like Bud Grant and touch him with tenderness. It could reach an uncompromising competitor like Mike Singletary and touch him with peace.

So there, there is more to it than the bombast.

The Big Move: Easing Relocation for Older Adults

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:13:00 -0500

Minneapolis gerontologist Laura Hopp conducted a study involving 62 older adults (age 55+) who had recently gone through the move to an independent living community. The study looked at reasons surrounding to decision and what things made the move difficult or easier.

The top reasons for leaving were the participants' homes were no longer suitable for physical needs and the maintenance increasingly difficult (30%). Being closer to family and building a social network was a close second (28%). Downsizing and letting go of possessions was the hardest part of the move for 39%, followed by leaving friends and community (30%). Most (54%) found nothing could make the move easier, although getting rid of belongings would have made the move easier. Hopp states, "because possessions hold many memories, it's difficult to let go. But some wanted to watch loved ones enjoy gifts while they were still alive. Many participants talked about giving belongings to charity, with donations to a local library or historical society other, satisfactory options."

Hopp believes that most moves are prompted by adult children. "This is partly related to their being caught in the middle between their parents and their own children. [Parenthood] does not allow the adult child to give their parents the care they need. This often then leads the children to look at a community of care for their parents. Most often the children come looking at communities...before they bring Mom or Dad by to visit or tour."

When asked what advice they'd give to other seniors contemplating a move to an independent living community, the study participants said to be sure you understand the facility, the services offered, and talk to current residents. Additionally, get involved in the new community as soon as possible, don’t bring too many belongings, use a good moving company, and do it before it is no longer your decision.

~Helen Rickman