An Encouraging Word

There is good news from many quarters for the "over the hill gang" and baby boomers. Healthy lifestyles and medical advances offer hope to women and men over 40, 50, 60, and beyond.

This month's good news is found in and around Gail Sheehy's new book, Sex and the Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the Passionate Life.

The first positive note in the title is a positive name for women over 50-what our culture likes to call the "older woman." A second cause for celebration is the theme of the book: 400 seasoned women talked to Sheehy about their lives and the fact that many are breathing new life into the stage of middle age.

Sheehy explores how many women are transforming this passage into later life while some remain stuck in old patterns. She divides the seasoned women into five categories: the passionate, seekers, WMDs (Women Married Dammit); SQS (Status Quo); and LLs (Lowered Libidos).

The book offers help for women who identify with any one of the five categories. Sheehy's research delves into the route of pursuing a more passionate life for any woman who seeks that goal. The conscious commitment to living with renewed energy in relationships or new intellectual pursuits can lead to new phases of taking risks and pursuing new or old dreams, enjoyment of increased self-knowledge and self-appreciation, spiritual longing and growth, and ultimately "grand love."

Thirty year's after Passages, Gail Sheehy has again captured our attention. For more information, you can go to her website at www.gailsheehy.com or the Seasoned Woman's Network at seasonedwomansnetwork.com.

>For men and women and baby boomers of all ages, there is an encouraging word from PARADE Magazine, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Met Life Foundation. They all want to know your answer to this question: What would you call the stage of life between 60 and 80? You can respond at www.parade.com.

These organizations recognize that Baby Boomers (born between the years 1946 and 1964) have greater expectations for longevity and that the usual words used to describe this age group ("senior citizens" or "old") may seem outdated.

[Editor's note: we bet we can guess the ages of some of the promoters of this nationwide survey.]