From Alaska to Colorado to New York, young people crossed the country for peace and love in a time of rage and resentment. — The Woodstock Music and Art Fair has been described as a watershed, seminal, formative, game changing, and with dozens of superlatives. …

During life’s most difficult times, we can discover redemption through creation. — Mark McGann, a modest and scholarly chaplain, represented a California hospice that took care of my sister, Julie. He gathered my family around a dining room table. Speaking in a calm voice, almost a whisper, he asked us, “Is there value in suffering?” Our wife-mother-sister-grandmother was dying in the master…

Before the 1954 Supreme Court Brown decision, racial segregation was common in American schools, as was this policy in Topeka, Kansas, epicenter of the Civil Rights Movement. — Throughout the first half of the 20th century, public school boards forced African-American children to attend disparate schools encumbered by substandard facilities and located long distances from their homes, although white-only schools were nearby.

The beleaguered artist suffered more failure by age 37 than most people experience in a long life. — Waking from a fitful dream, he struggled out of bed and stumbled to a barred window. From this perspective in the asylum, he beheld a clear night, a large morning star enchanting him. The sight of stars always inspired him. Just as we take a train from Paris to Amsterdam…

In 1969, three high school students secured the right for students to wear protest clothing on campuses through Tinker v. Des Moines School District, a landmark Supreme Court decision relevant today as the Israel-Hamas war rages and protests ensue on college campuses. — Reverend Doctor Henry G. Bart, dean emeritus of the Kansas School of Religion, decried the Moratorium to a sympathetic crowd of locals and military personnel gathered in a city park. “They are attacking servicemen and ridiculing what has been accomplished by soldiers from this city and those across the country.”…

On my 25th birthday, I awoke alone and feeling miserable. I had realized that I was in the wrong intimate relationship, the wrong job, and the wrong career. My first cup of coffee that morning included troubling thoughts about life not measuring up the way I had dreamed. After a morning run, I showered and then sat solitary at a dining table. The apartment seemed impersonal, without warmth or comfort. This new home, alone, did not seem homelike. Not only had I lost my fiancé during an amicable breakup, but our shared friends were choosing sides. I was…

When we become receptive to wonder, our lives take on new and powerful dimensions. I remember a remarkable, transformative night during my childhood. It had been a fitful, sleepless night . My mind dashed and skipped, and my thoughts circled around a primary thought. Barely thirteen years old, I did not have the cognitive complexity to understand the significance of this epiphany — that…

The September 2023 edition of the AARP Bulletin showcases a multi-author cover article about how Boomers and older adults are “Changing America” and “shaking up our country.” The article discusses trends in seven categories, from financial services to travel. Most of the trends (referred to as phenomena) were obvious to…

Never before in the history of this nation have so many men entered the 70+ life stage. A Boomer male turns 70 about every 15 seconds. This inexorable march to 70+ will continue until 2034, and then this generation’s longevity dash moves forward toward the ninth and tenth decades of…