New Year's Resolutions

Thanks for reading my posts on modernity and fashion,
Letting me exercise my long-running Art Deco passion.
While the exhibition’s been given an extended stay,*
To other topics I really should stray.
What subjects shall I choose to beguile your time?
And is it necessary that they all should rhyme?
For fashion is a most powerful force,
Too important to simply let it take its course.

The truth, dear readers, is a question to you—
What would you most want me to do?
In the year ahead since the Art Deco motif is spent,
On what new journeys should we be sent?
It’s been a pleasure to wander afield
To see what secrets fashion can yield.
Shall I head back into the past for wonders to plumb,
Or is the retrospective view simply too dumb?
Since past and present have a way of intertwining,
I’d better get started, and quit all this whining!

* “Art Deco Design: Rhythm and Verve” has been extended to May 22, 2009. If you haven’t seen it yet, come to the Wachenheim Gallery of the Central Building at 42nd Street, first floor. I’m starting work on an online version, coming soon in the months ahead…

A few weeks ago I attended an institute in Massachusetts and heard Margie E. Lachman, a professor at Brandeis University and Chair of the Department of Psychology & Lifespan Lab there, speak about cognitive and physical changes as we grow older. She was very forthright about the bad news, while being optimistic about the good news.

Let's get the bad news over with, shall we? Yes, aging does bring declines in both physical and cognitive health. But the good news is that you can increase protective factors which will minimize or even compensate for the declines.

The factors which protect against physical declines are: getting a good education; having a high sense of control; reducing stress and anxiety; exercising regularly; receiving social support; not smoking; and maintaining a favorable waist to hip ratio. The factors which protect against cognitive decline are: getting a good education (even if you get it later in life); having a high sense of control; reducing stress and anxiety; exercising regularly; staying socially engaged; and engaging in cognitively stimulating activities. Dr. Lachman pointed out that it is never too early, and never too late, to develop these protective factors.

And there is more good news–psychological health, wisdom and problem-solving ability increase as we get older. Dr. Lachman shared a quote from the Roman statesman and orator Cicero--his advice to Cato on old age, p. 46: “resist old age. . .fight against it as we would fight against disease. . .much greater care is due to the mind and soul; for they too, like lamps, grow dim with time unless we keep them supplied with oil.”

For a thorough list of readings and websites on aging topics including health, purposeful aging, work, volunteering, and civic engagement, check out the amazing list from Libraries for the Future here. And, be sure to check out your local library.

This list is the stuff that New Year's Resolutions are made of. So, which factors on the list should you (and I) start with?