Tag: aging
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Book review: Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England The subjects of ageing, death, and immortality have long preoccupied human thoughts and culture. The ancient Egyptians practiced mummification out of a belief in an afterlife. Buddhists and Hindus believe in reincarnation with the immortal soul living on in another body. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam also have rites and rituals that…
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The anorexia of aging
Alexandra MignucciAlbany, New York, United States While working at a medical home for patients with Alzheimer’s, I became fascinated by the difference in how much food the patients would eat when sitting at the table as a group versus when I would feed them in their rooms or on the couch. There was no difference…
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The loneliness of the long-living doctor
Peter Arnold Sydney, Australia A noticeable phenomenon of the twenty-first century is the increasing frequency of friendships between older men. The importance of such friendships to both mental and physical health has been well documented.1,2,3 This issue has particular relevance to older male doctors, especially in the UK, where doctors tend to retire early.4 Many…
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No complaints, only symptoms
Peter Arnold Sydney, Australia “No complaints, only symptoms,” I told my cardiologist this year. How dare I complain? I am eighty-four. Thirty-two years have passed since my quintuple coronary artery bypass; eighteen years since a diagnosis, in one of eleven biopsy samples, of invasive prostate cancer—left untreated, because so few of us die from it; five…
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Gulliver at Luggnagg — Learning about the immortal struldbrugs (abridged)
The Luggnaggians are a polite and generous people . . . they show themselves courteous to strangers. One day . . . I was asked by a person of quality, “whether I had seen any of their struldbrugs, or immortals?” . . . He told me “that sometimes, though very rarely, a child happened to…
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Rehearsing lines
Catalina Florina FlorescuHoboken, New Jersey, United States CHARACTERS: EveAna TIME AND SETTING: Now, here. Two women are seated on a bench. That’s all you need to know. Plus that their name is a palindrome. Mirrored names. Make what you want out of this. EVE: What is the taste of water, dear? ANA: Excuse me? EVE:…
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The African Savannah
Steve AblonChestnut Hill, Massachusetts Forty years ago, my fatherwore his safari hat, squintedthrough binoculars, told us thosegiraffes, the dark ones, are older,and soon will not be able to outrunlions or will break a leg, be eaten.That is the cycle of life he said.Now he needs a walker. My teacherbroke her hip, my colleague torehis anterior…
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Me, my father, and the angels
Hope AtlasLivingston, New Jersey, United States The handle of the dresser drawer talks to my father while he sits in bedWhenever he likes he can conjure up the face of the dresser drawerwith its pointy ears, droopy mouth and metal earringsThe angels are comingHe laughs, pointing at the dresser drawerThey are singing, “It’s time to…