Remember “Tuesdays with Morrie?” Published in 1997, it recounted conversations between Morris (Morrie) Schwartz, nearly 80 and approaching the end stage of A.L.S., and Mitch Albom, a former student of Professor Schwartz’s at Brandeis University. The book sold an astounding 15 million copies! Why? Rachel Syme, the author of “Pearl Hunting” in the Jan. 3 […]
Ellen Waterston
Poet and author Ellen Waterston, named Oregon's Poet Laureate in 2024, is a woman of a certain age who resides in Bend. "The Third Act" is a series of columns on ageing and ageism.
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The Third Act
Just One Mistletoe Minute!
I‘m a soft touch when it comes to the finals of any team competition. Good luck picking what to watch over the holidays! Christmas Day—all about the NBA. Boxing Day is devoted to that other kind of football. Don’t forget the New Year’s Six! Whichever sport, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know players […]
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The Third Act: The Race to Finish Last
Author Ellen Waterston’s latest column tackles aging and exercise… and when to say when
My husband and I originally moved to Oregon to ranch, first north of Brothers and later along the Crooked River. One of the many things I treasured all those years was that staying fit wasn’t a separate activity scheduled into the workday or weekends, rather was part and parcel of every day—irrigating and calving in […]
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The Third Act
Possible Futures
Kate Bowler in her book “No Cure for Being Human” says, “Everybody pretends you die only once. But that’s not true. You can die a thousand possible futures in the course of a … life.” I so get that, don’t you? As we live, who hasn’t had to die to the loss of loved ones, […]
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The Third Act
Playing the Fool
An article in the Jan. 18, 2021, issue of The New Yorker addresses one woman’s serious pursuit of painting starting in her 60s. Stepping down from an accomplished career as a professor of history at Princeton, and as the author of seven books and the recipient of countless honors, Nell Painter decided to pursue a […]
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The Third Act
Order and Counter-Order
Decades ago, my father, a semanticist, published a book about dualism in Western culture titled Order and Counter Order. It is most definitely not what anyone would call light reading. I refer to it only because the title was invoked at my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. As was the tradition, friends and family gathered and […]
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The Third Act
FOMO YOLO SOLO
COVID leveled the playing field when it came to Fear of Missing Out. After all, no one was having soirees or headed out on a camping trip or meeting at a brewery without you. No one was going to the symphony or theater or floating the river without you. During COVID there was nothing to […]
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The Third Act
Doomsday Dress Rehearsal
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the over-the-hill gang starts reading that particular section of the newspaper, but it seems to start roughly at age 60. The closest to a no from 60-somethings is “Not yet.” or “Maybe soon.” Otherwise, it’s a definite yes in response to my asking “Do you read the obituaries?” It […]
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Old Doesn’t Mean Addled
They never saw their age as a limitation. But what about the rest of us?
Waiting in the lobby, your name is called. A nurse shows you to the examination room. Annual checkup. “How’s it going, young man? How are you doing today, young lady?” What is it about those greetings that rub the wrong way? Patronizing? Saccharine? A thinly veiled sympathy card in acknowledgement of this disease called ageing? […]
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BTW, We’re Not Going to Get Out of This Alive
Introducing “The Third Act: On Aging and Ageism,” a new column by local author Ellen Waterston
Unless you’re in your late 60s it’s likely this concept hasn’t registered, excepting for those, and may God bless them, who’ve prematurely stared down death. But look at the oblivious rest of us go! Then here comes act three characterized by a palpable, albeit subtle, sea change. Suddenly we get it at a cellular level: […]