Baby Boomers - We Have Seen the Future and It Is Now

By Sara Dillinger

I received a magazine this summer that contained a number of interesting juxtapositions that relate to our experiences as Baby Boomers or people of the Third Chapter. The cover story dealt with changes in the last thirty years - changes that we have lived through or witnessed - and what we might expect in the next thirty years or so.
The cover story was the thirtieth anniversary of "Discover" magazine (1980-2010), billed as 'thirty years that changed everything.' This rather grandiose claim is perhaps justified by the fact that the magazine itself doesn't claim to be responsible for those changes, but rather reported on them. "Discover" cites twelve scientific breakthroughs that "transformed the world" These were:
Astronomy: planets discovered around other stars.
Paleontology: dinosaurs demystified
Anthropology: mankind's ancestors unmasked
Medicine: the rise of cell therapy
Materials: controlling individual atoms
Brain: consciousness mapped
Space: seeing the real solar system
Genetics: secrets of the human genome
Physics: the hidden unity of nature
Technology: transformed by the Web
Cosmology: taking the measure of the universe
Environment: making sense of climate change
Not content to rest on its laurels, however, the magazine - like the Roman god Janus - looks back to the past and forward to the future as well. The articles in this issue also discuss such "crystal-ball gazing" topics as clean energy, bringing the dinosaurs (previously demystified) back, brain plasticity, exploring the deep seas, robotics, the search for alien life, eradicating childhood disease, what came before the Big Bang, cellular medicine, privacy, and a theory of everything.
Now, I admit that I have not yet read all of these articles, either of the past or of the future. But I will. What caught my attention this time, however, was an article entitled "Live Long and Prosper" which detailed current research on the aging process.
One lone wolf scientist, longevity researcher Aubrey de Grey (I wonder if his name influenced his field of study) claims that the life span of a healthy human being could hit 1,000 years!
Most of the scientists mentioned in the article, though, had more modest claims. Scientists like Nir Barzilai of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, David Sharp at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and David Harrison at the Jackson Laboratory in Maine want to increase our life span only slightly - possibly to 100 years. The main thrust of their research, however, is to increase our "health span."
David Harrison puts it this way: "Aging is an underlying timing mechanism for all chronic diseases...If we can retard aging a little bit, we can actually improve health not just from one disease but from cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, Alzheimer's, Parkinson - from most of the bad things. We get an increase in healthy life span."
I said at the beginning that this issue of "Discover" had some juxtapositions that relate to our experiences as Baby Boomers. What I meant is this: We have lived through these last thirty years that "have changed everything." These last thirty years of our lives have changed everything, too.
Like "Discover" and like old Janus, we look to the past because it has shaped us. But we also look to the future. We're not ready to give up on life or to give up life. We have a lot of living yet to do. Hopefully, we'll be healthier along the way.
I've got to tell you, I for one would not want to live 1,000 years if 930 of those years had to be spent dying of cancer or wandering in the shadow reality of Alzheimer's.
One other piece I want to mention from the "Discover" magazine. On the last page, in an article entitled "20 Things You Didn't Know About the Future" - a spoof of "Discovers'" usually more serious "20 Things...." series, Elliott Kalan writes:
"When the future arrives, we won't recognize it at first. What we think of as just more of the present will turn out, only after weeks of intensive study, to have been the future."

Sara Dillinger is an Elder in the United Methodist Church with sixteen years experience serving mainly small, rural churches with mostly Baby Boomer or older members. She is currently on leave of absence exploring a world transformed by the Web. You may check out her website at:
http://www.for-boomers.com

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Aging Isn't for Wimps: Keep Going Strong

By Sara Dillinger 
My mother used to say that growing old is not for the weak. Being young and invincible, I thought Mom complained too much. Now that I am older and wiser, I realize that she was right.
Think about it.
We have a long period of on-the-job-training for getting older. One would think that with all that experience behind us, we'd be better at it. One of the problems, though, is that someone keeps changing the working conditions.
Twenty years ago, I took an adult education course in computer programming at the local high school. As I told my husband, "It's getting so that if you don't know how to use computers, you're functionally illiterate."
Today, with my smattering of computer knowledge, I'm being besieged by PDA's, iPods, Smart phones, Facebook and Tweeter. Someone has changed the working conditions.
Some of us may still remember the halcyon days of the family doctor, the General Practitioner, who - if he (and they were mostly he's) didn't make house calls - at least he didn't charge you an arm and a leg for an office call.
Someone has changed the working conditions: how many of us have trouble getting in to see a doctor in the first place? And the cost of an office call is so high that we only go if it is absolutely necessary. Health insurance, which was supposed to make healthcare both more available and more affordable, has spiraled out of control. Many of us can't even afford health insurance.
No, aging isn't for wimps. But the alternative isn't all that great, either. Harvard professor Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot in her book, The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50 I says:
"We must develop a compelling vision of later life: one that does not assume a trajectory of decline after fifty, but one that recognizes it as a time of change, growth and new learning, a time when our courage gives us hope."
As I think about all this, it seems to me that this is the challenge that many of us Baby Boomers face: we've worked hard all our lives and it is so tempting to rest on our laurels and become set in our ways.
The image of the stodgy old curmudgeon or the acerbic old biddy come to mind. I suspect that that is how many young people think of us - we're so far over the hill that....
Maybe we're so far over the hill that we've started up the other side! We are the ones who are changing our own working conditions. We're not settling in our ways and we're not settling for the same old same old. We're looking forward to twenty or thirty more good years of life and we are determined to make it count for something.
It has been said that the past is over and done, that the future may never come, and that all we really have is today. That was never more true in my life than right now and I suspect that the same is true for you. Let's make right now the best years of our lives.

Sara Dillinger is an Elder in the United Methodist Church, currently on leave of absence. You may check out her website at:
http://www.for-boomers.com

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Best Practices in Office Technology Supply

By Ockie Coetzer

When it comes to all of the basic, and then also the more advanced features concerning office technology supply, it is paramount that what is supplied is of the highest value and that services rendered are immaculate and accompanied by the highest standards of integrity.
Ardri Investments, trading as Comrite in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa is a definitive leader when it comes to service excellence in the Office Technology Supply field.
This business, started by Antoinette (Toekie) Kloppers in 2003, prides itself on intensely personal customer service accompanied by the assurance that if any product is not carried by them, they will find it for you... This is a rare thing...
Toekie and her husband, Anton, are known in business and social circles throughout South Africa and are most readily described as straight-forward, honest and friendly. This is the way in which they conduct business and it is also the way in which they train and mentor their staff.
When taking a closer look at the physical aspect of their trading world, one can't help but notice the encompassing nature of their product. Ranging in size and usefulness from the common post-it note, to small and medium-sized home and business networks, one stands amazed at the sheer pleasure of finding such flexibility in a provider.
When you walk into any of their shops, it goes without saying that you will find friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff who will assist you in any and all of your needs to a very high standard.
In this day and age it is absolutely essential to be flexible in business and business relationships. By taking this into account, one can see that the circumspect nature of an establishment that provides a wide range of product and services under one flag makes absolute sense as an effective business model. One can therefore surmise that Ardri Investments, as a trendsetter in its field, is and will in future, be a trendsetter in the area of Office Technology Supply in general.

Comrite
http://comrite.blogspot.com

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The Science and Art of Monetary Policy

By John Severin
 

The US economy is very large and is almost impossible to control. Much of the US economy is driven by the interest rates that banks give. The lower the interest rate offered the more likely that companies will take out loans and expand their business, therefore adding to the economy. There are 3 basic principals which form the core approach to banks monetary policy.
The first is to "focus on the output gap." When banks try to achieve an overly ambitious output, by allowing many companies to take out loans, they release a lot of money into the economy. This surge of cash can result in inflation which is why banks need to opt for a realistic approach to output. The second principal is called the "Taylor Principal." This approach is very simple if inflation rises by 1 percent then banks should increase the interest they pay customers by 1 percent. Every increase in inflation after that should similarly result in an increase in interest paid. This would result in customers of banks feeling that their money will not lose its value over time due to inflation because banks will pay them an increasing amount for having an account with them. The last principal is to realize that effecting the economy by changing interest rates takes time. Effects of the change may take up to 18 months to see. Banks need predict inflation and respond to it in kind with a change in their interest rates. Monetary policy is not an exact science but if these 3 principals are followed it will help radical changes from sweeping the US economy. Just because the US economy is large does not at all mean that it is without major defects as mentioned above. Sometimes it appears that other countries put our economy on a golden pedestal and they fail to take into account its problems.

Written by John Severin,
Yogurt Starter
http://yogurtstarter.net

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