Older Americans Month: Blaze a Trail

“Older Americans have unique knowledge and a breadth of insights that are tremendous assets to our country -- and our seniors are eager to impart the wisdom learned from their experiences….Aging affects us all, and I am dedicated to empowering more of today's seniors and future seniors.”

– Barack Obama, Presidential Proclamation of Older Americans Month (OAM) 2016 

This year’s OAM theme: “Blaze a Trail emphasizes the ways older adults are reinventing themselves through new work and new passions, engaging their communities, and blazing a trail of positive impact on the lives of people of all ages.”  The OAM website included tip sheets for Civic Engagement, Reinvention, Securing Your Finances, and Wellness.

Civic Engagement:  Getting Involved

Leaders from California Alliance of Retired Americans (CARA) and Community Living Campaign (CLC) volunteer their unique experiences to make a difference in the community by presenting a 2-hour Empowered Elder Workshop at this month’s Older Women’s League (OWL) meeting.

 

Hene Kelly, retired public school teacher and former CPR instructor whose nephew is an EMT, presented on Vial of Life: a kit to store medication information for access by emergency personnel.  

Sandra Mack, another retired teacher, presented 4 key lessons on Hospital Stay: 1) use personal support network, including patient advocate and someone who can care for your responsibilities like pets, 2) money – know insurance coverage, 3) arrange for visitors and/or bring pictures of family/friends – humanize yourself to receive better treatment from hospital staff, and 4) engage with discharge planner – exercise your right to a safe discharge, including appeal an early discharge by calling 1–877–588-1123 if necessary.  To get full benefits of Medicare after hospitalization, make sure to ask each day if you’re inpatient (formally admitted to hospital) versus outpatient (observation status).   

Gray Panthers advocate Michael Lyon presented on Advance Health Care Directives for durable power of attorney and health care.  He reminded us that these forms can be amended when our definition of an “acceptable quality of life” changes with medical expectations and situations. 

Hene is one of the Inspiring Women for Democratic County Central Committee!  

Legacy Film Festival on Aging Director Sheila Malkind with Pia.  Sheila’s 6^th annual Festival on September 16-18, 2016 is an opportunity to further civic engagement with each film screening followed by Q&A forum to discuss aging issues.

Reinvention:  Follow Your Passion, Use Your Skills

AARP “Real Possibilities” hosted a 3-hour LifeReimagined Checkup: a personal guidance system to help people navigate life transitions and pursue new opportunities in work, well-being and relationships. 

• Ice breaker question: If you had an opportunity to travel to a different time and place, when and where would it be?  My answer: Back to the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden J!
• Purposeful Life = Gifts (what you’re good at) + Passions (what you love) + Impacts (who you want to benefit) + Values (what motivates you) + Possibilities (what you want to be, feel & have)

The following 6 practices of Life Reimagined made me think appreciatively of my ERISA recruiter Jeff, who was always checking up on me to stay relevant (and not to be shy about changing jobs to gain advantages like expanding KSA and access to professional networks):

1. Reflect:  present situation is opportunityà take inventory of where you are, people you care about, your work & purpose
2. Connect:  don’t have to go it aloneà engage people to mentor, support & listen to you
3. Explore:  approach future with openness & curiosityà discover & bring new possibilities into your life
4. Choose:  commit to making a changeàweigh options & decide on your new direction
5. Repack:  accept necessary tradeoffsàdecide what you need to reach your goal, what you can do without
6. Act:  you can do ità take 1^st step & adapt as you go

As an island girl inspired to be a do-gooder from weekly Bible study and seeking opportunities to leave the rock, I thought becoming a traveling missionary would be my life’s purpose.  However, as a child of Chinese immigrants, I could choose from 5 acceptable career fields: medicine, engineering, finance, law and academia.  Been there, done that! Now I suppose it’s surprising that I chose an encore career in social services since I am more an introverted ideas (ITNJ personality) than extroverted touchy-feely, social butterfly type of person.  But organizations need employees who reflect the diversity of their clients, including those near the end-of-life (i.e., older adults) – always an opportunity for more introversion/introspection and appreciation. 

Throughout my life, my passion for reading, mostly nonfiction, has been constant and so engrossing that I sometimes forget about eating (another lifelong passion).  

As a bookworm, I had a blast indulging at Oakland Book Festival, a celebration of what makes us human – our ability for reflection, storytelling, sharing ideas! This year’s theme was Labor, and I was able to meet many talented and inspiring writers!

Mary Roach on her latest book, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, about how science is trying to make soldiers immune to panic, exhaustion and trauma.  If I am to make a living pursuing my passion for books, including exploring topics that pique my curiosity, I will need to be more disciplined to find time …

My passion for social justice led to me attend “Justice for the Young” panel: Elaine Brown talked about the Black Panthers starting their own Liberation School because they were against desegregation, which they perceived as inferior mis-education at the time because teachers had no relationship based on life experience shared with black students.  I continue to have mixed feelings about segregation based on race, gender, age, etc. to counter –isms, especially since I loved to sing-along to USA for Africa’s “We Are the World” during my formative years:

(Tina Turner) We are all a part of God's great big family …

(Michael Jackson) We are the world, we are the children

We are the ones who make a brighter day

So let’s start giving …

(Cyndi Lauper) Let us realize that a change can only come

(Kim Carnes) When we stand together as one …

“The Uncanniness of Altruism” panel gave me more food for thought about my own career choices, including my latest desire to advocate for older adults’ right to live independently in their homes for as long as safely possible.  San Francisco Magazine editor Gary Kamiya moderated this thought-provoking discussion based on Larissa MacFarquhar’s  Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Overpowering Urge to Help (2015).  I identified with social worker Julia Wise, one subject of extreme altruism profiled in this book.  Julia’s utilitarian dilemma:  is the greater good served by taking a higher-paying (corporate) job to make monetary contributions, or taking a lower-paying (non-profit) job to make direct labor contributions, for worthy causes?  While working in the corporate sector, I attempted to do both—maximizing tax-deductible contributions by making donations to non-governmental organizations (e.g., Foundation for Sustainable Development and Global Service Corps) to personally volunteer overseas using paid time-off from work.

“Undervalued, Invisible: Domestic & Emotional Labor” featured panel of Bay Area women:  Katie Quan, UC Berkeley labor specialist; Ruth Rosen, author of The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America (2006); Arlie Hochschild, author of The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home (2012); and moderator Deidre English, former editor of Mother Jones magazine.  This discussion focused on childcare (last month, San Francisco passed Paid Parental Leave for Bonding with New Child Ordinance), rather than eldercare, which needs more attention like San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar’s Support at Home to subsidize home care for seniors and persons with disabilities (PWD) who do not qualify for IHSS yet do not have enough income to pay for private home care.  Eric also introduced Dignity Fund, a proposal to amend the City Charter to authorize setting aside 2% of future property taxes to stabilize funding services for seniors and PWD.

At AgeSong’s University campus, passionate Julia Wolfson presented From the Inside Out: Changing the Culture of Care about the shift from the medical model (fix problem patient) to an empowerment model (learn what’s important to the person). She said using the power of love-based curiosity, we find out what makes one come alive from inside out, even from someone who does not use words to communicate.

Securing Your Finances: Plan Wisely, Watch Closely

At Chinatown Night Out, I drew more Blaze a Trail inspiration from 41 Ross Alley’s 3650 exhibit featuring Mr. Zhao, who immigrated 10 years ago from China at age 66 with his American Dream to “make a decent living” in San Francisco, which necessitated hard work including his steadfast determination to acquire English fluency. 

Instead of learning the phonetic English alphabet, Mr. Zhao denoted the pronunciations of English words with Chinese characters in his hometown dialect—transcribing over 2,000 words on cardboards plastered on the walls and ceilings of his Chinatown SRO.  He studied ESL at City College, earned his driver’s license, found work in a white-owned store, became a U.S. citizen within 5 years, collected recyclables, etc.  Then, 3650 days after his immigration, mission accomplished: Mr. Zhao earned enough to enable a “return home in silken robes” to visit his 90-year-old mother in China. 

                                   

Wellness:  Be Wise, Be Well

OAM tip sheet for Blaze a Trail to Wellness reminds us:  “Activity is important, but nutrition is equally vital.”  Krab cake in dill sauce with herbed rice and country veggies, courtesy of Meals on Wheels of San Francisco!