HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY AMERICA
SENIOR HOBBIES, ARTS
AND FAMILY HISTORIES
Current retirees and "boomers" are a lucky group, living in a window of opportunity that may never appear again. We need to make hay while the sun (Social Security, Savings/ IRA/ equity) still shines. Are we making the best of our golden years?
This site represents my philosophy of life as a retired person with plenty of leisure time to examine our recent past and present, develop new thoughts, explore new creative activities and hobbies. But hobbies do wear thin sometimes. Now more than ever, we need to find some serious meaning in life. Retired people of any age can feel somewhat lost without their former career, family responsibilities, or former sense of purpose.
Painter, Puzzler or Putz: Your Retirement Persona
Elderplay: New Senior Hobbies
A Mother's History of the 20th Century (essays)
Curb Feelers (interactive blog)
Hopefully, a few ideas here might inspire you, or at least entertain you. Please feel free to respond on the Comment pages
THE QUESTIONS: NATURE, RELIGION, ARTS AND HUMANITIES
NATURE, BIOLOGY, EVOLUTION This is my personal library on Nature, Biology and Evolution, which appears to have something like "reviews" attached to each book. Here I may argue a few selected points that interest me, but these are by no means complete formal reviews of the type found at booksellers or in the newspaper. Evolution is an area of intense interest to me, especially since reading this book by my 19th century teacher, Ernst Haeckel, the scientist often called "Germany's Darwin." Haeckel was originally an artist, who chose to pursue his second love, science; but he maintained his lifelong interest in his art as well, producing the beautiful book "Art Forms in Nature." CHRISTIANITY VERSUS NATURE: A NEW WEB SITE!
RELIGION, SPIRITUALITY AND THE WISDOM TRADITIONS My personal library on Religion and Spirituality has been very important to me for decades, throughout the many changes in my religion/ personal philosophy. I have everything here from Atheism to Zarathustra. I was particularly interested in what Conservatives, fundamentalists, and millennialists were thinking, as well as all the outspoken atheists of our time - plus many people in between. There are many specialists here (e.g. theologians) but also generalists. A surprising number of people in fields outside Religion seem to have all sorts of opinions on religion and spirituality. For example, certain astronomers, professors of literature, geography, psychology to name a few. Curiously, those who reject religion often have the most to say on the subject. ARTS, LANGUAGE, WRITING; FICTION LIBRARY: SCI-FI/ FANTASY, HUMOR I have found some interesting game changers here, coming from many different disciplines. Shown here is Julia Cameron's book, "The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity," which has changed the lives of many people including me. Jared Diamond's best-seller, "Guns, Germs and Steel" appears in this section as it is History, Anthropology, Language and a number of other disciplines wrapped together in a complete "history of everything." It is a masterpiece of writing. How does human language compare with animal communication? The vocalizing Vervet monkey and the "art" instincts of primates may hold important clues to human behaviors. Under construction is a new section called Language. THE GALLERIES
I was an Art major in both high school and college, intent on becoming a commercial artist. After being exposed to a broad new scope of ideas in college, along with some foreign languages and linguistics, I switched my major to Child Development. I worked with children's programs for several years, but always kept some form of art as a "hobby" or specialty. As a retired person, I finally got some time to catch up on painting again! This is my gallery of acrylic paintings, which seem to be heavy on flowers and landscapes at the moment, plus a new creative hobby that I found. Just keep exercising those little gray cells!
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