Does political activism make us happy?

One of my facebook friends sent me a link to a recent Guardian article by Aditya Chakrabortty summarizing recent research claiming to demonstrate a link between happiness and political activism:

According to Chakrabortty :

Marching in the drizzle against wars in far-off countries, writing letters protesting the government's latest reactionary policy, sitting through interminable meetings that keep sprouting Any Other Business. It may be noble, but political activism is hardly a barrel of laughs. And yet it makes you happier.
So find two university psychologists in new research that looks for the first time at the link between political activity and wellbeing. Malte Klar and Tim Kasser started by interviewing two sets of around 350 college students, both about their degree of political engagement and their levels of happiness and optimism. Both times, they found that those most inclined to go on a demo were also the cheeriest.

I guess this applies to the Tea Party groups as well as to the left of center, feminist groups I identify with--although the tea party folks strike me as far more angry than “happy.”

Klar and Kasser’s research provides some support for what I’ve observed. I remember as a young activist marveling at all the old communists who seemed so cheerful handing out their leaflets and copies of the Daily World. They seemed so much more alive than most of the old people I knew.

And yes, people on the left can be just as angry and embittered as any tea party type, but for the most part the people I have known in social movements have always seemed so much more alive and engaged with the world than the non-activists.

Although the projects changed in response to changes in my life circumstances and the political possibilities of the time, activism has been a constant thread in my life. Like many young people who came of age in the 60’s, my activist projects were the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. After a brief involvement in far left politics, I backed away from trying to change the world and focused on changes I could make in my own backyard. When my son entered public school, I began a whole new very rewarding second career (unpaid of course) as a public school activist.

In the aftermath of Reagan’s election in 1980, a real shift occurred. As I watched the Reagan administration build up the military budget and starve social programs, I realized I could no longer afford to vote for protest candidates.In the early 80’s I discovered my real activist passion--feminism. I missed the early 70’s golden age of feminist activism thanks to participation in groups which viewed feminism as a petit bourgeois deviation, but I’ve made up for it in the last 30 years!

I managed to combine feminist activism with involvement in electoral politics by working to elect feminist candidates and encouraging more women to become involved in grassroots politics. The last 8 years as Philadelphia NOW chapter president was probably my most satisfying activist project.

Now that I am retired, both from my teaching job and my main volunteer job as Phila NOW President, I've started looking around for new activist projects. I have the time!

I’ve been involved in setting up a new organization, Southeastern Pennsylvania NOW PAC, I am still a Democratic committeeperson and am now running for Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee. (Forty years ago, I would not have believed that I would end my activist days as a democratic committeeperson. But at this stage in my life, slow gradual change is all I can imagine. There is a reason that revolutions are always made by the young.)

One of the wonderful things about an activist career is that there is always the opportunity for learning something new-–options not always available in paid employment. I ran for the board of Philly Cam, our local cable access station, and now have the opportunity to learn about something totally new(to me).

I didn’t set about to do all this to become happy, and I’m not sure if I would call myself “happy”—-whatever that means—-but I feel engaged and part of the world and hope to keep this up as long as I can.

I finally got a chance to hear President Obama in person: his health care speech at Arcadia University

Well, I finally got a chance to hear President Obama in person. During the campaign I was still teaching and didn’t have the time to wait in line for tickets and get there 3-4 hours early to get a good seat. I’m kind of phobic about huge crowds, so I didn’t go to the open air events such as the huge Independence Hall rally in Philly in late spring, 2008. And of course those $1,000 a ticket receptions were way out of reach.

But now that I’m retired, I had the time to track down tickets and get to the event several hours early—although unfortunately not early enough to get a good seat. My first perk after 25+ years of grunt work as a Democratic committee person—2 tickets to Obama’s speech at Arcadia University

Obama’s speech was powerful, outlining all the good things his health care plan would accomplish: no denial of coverage for preexisting conditions; no lifetime caps on coverage; expansion of Medicaid for low-income people; subsidies for working families and what got the biggest applause given that the room was packed with college students—allowing young people to stay on their parents’ plan until age 26.

It may not be the single payer plan I’d like to see if I could wave a magic wand and get exactly what I want, but it may be the best plan that’s achievable in the current political environment.

I’ve lost all patience with middle class progressives who want to kill the bill and start over. They almost seem to be competing with each other: “I’m more disillusioned with Obama than you are.”

I’ve yet to meet a "kill the bill" progressive (?)who is not a middle class person with health insurance. These folks may have the luxury of waiting for the perfect bill, but low income Americans and those with preexisting conditions do not. The expansion of Medicaid is a huge step forward. As health care expert Paul Starr wrote in the American Prospect
:

…the legislation as a whole, with its expansion of Medicaid and insurance subsidies to people with low incomes, would be the biggest, most redistributive economic-security program in decades.

Granted, the bill is far from perfect, but it establishes the principle that government has a responsibility to ensure access to health care for all citizens. We’ll gradually improve it; as Tom Harkin (or was it Daschle?), described it, this is a “starter bill.”

The President’s speech at Arcadia has inspired this aging activist to work a little harder to get this done!

Should we do more to encourage those older works who can afford to retire to make room for young workers?

I’m a retiree with no plans of ever again entering the paid work force, but I’m nonetheless really worried about the grim unemployment statistics. I worry about the young people in my life who might be facing long-term joblessness and I worry about the consequences for our society.

Should we do more to encourage those older works who can afford to retire to make room for young workers? My decision to retire was based primarily on my own exhaustion and longing to do something different with my life, not on an altruistic desire to make room for younger workers. But although altruism did not drive my decision, I was happy to make room for a younger teacher who would bring fresh ideas and energy to the classroom. There are too many young teachers out there who can't find jobs.

Don Peck’s article in the March 2010 Atlantic points out that the problem of long-term joblessness is the not just a consequence of the current recession but rather of fundamental changes in the structure of the economy. Peck describes the consequences of our jobless recovery--if it is indeed a recovery:

The effects of pervasive joblessness—on family, politics, society—take time to incubate, and they show themselves only slowly. But ultimately, they leave deep marks that endure long after boom times have returned. Some of these marks are just now becoming visible, and even if the economy magically and fully recovers tomorrow, new ones will continue to appear. The longer our economic slump lasts, the deeper they’ll be.
If it persists much longer, this era of high joblessness will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults—and quite possibly those of the children behind them as well.

The grim picture includes research based in my home town of Philadelphia. Peck cites the work of sociologist Kathryn Edin:

Communities with large numbers of unmarried, jobless men take on an unsavory character over time. Edin’s research team spent part of last summer in Northeast and South Philadelphia, conducting in-depth interviews with residents. She says she was struck by what she saw: “These white working-class communities—once strong, vibrant, proud communities, often organized around big industries—they’re just in terrible straits. The social fabric of these places is just shredding. There’s little engagement in religious life, and the old civic organizations that people used to belong to are fading. Drugs have ravaged these communities, along with divorce, alcoholism, violence. I hang around these neighborhoods in South Philadelphia, and I think, ‘This is beginning to look like the black inner-city neighborhoods we’ve been studying for the past 20 years.’ When young men can’t transition into formal-sector jobs, they sell drugs and drink and do drugs. And it wreaks havoc on family life.

Peck’s article is a powerful warning but short on solutions. The Obama administration is doing the right thing with investment in green technology and pressuring banks to start lending to small businesses, but it clearly isn’t going to be enough.

In addition to job creation we need to think more creatively about job sharing, such as the ideas about work sharing reported by Robert Pollen in his recent Nation article:

In the same vein are work-sharing programs that extend unemployment compensation to workers who accept reduced hours that then enable their companies to avoid outright layoffs. Indeed, work-sharing can be even more effective and fairer than traditional unemployment insurance, since it spreads the reductions in work hours across a wide group of workers rather than concentrating the effects of the recession on the minority of workers who become completely jobless. Work-sharing programs have long been a major part of the social safety net in Western Europe. Over this recession, Germany has been especially aggressive in extending these benefits to prevent rising unemployment.(my emphasis)

We need to spread the jobs around. Lowering the age at which one is eligible for Medicare might make some older workers decide to retire. Our society has been pushing workers to stay in the paid work force by gradually raising the age at which they are eligible for full retirement benefits. But either we pay more in social security and Medicare by encouraging older workers to leave the workforce or we’ll be paying more in unemployment compensation--not to mention the range of social ills resulting from a generation of young people who can’t find steady employment.

European societies have historically encouraged early retirement to make room for young workers. With plunging birth rates, some European societies are rethinking generous early retirement policies. But the United States with its relatively youthful population is in a position to move in this direction.

I hope some of my seventy something friends who are still teaching aren’t reading this, but I think reinstituting the mandatory retirement age for college professors might be a good idea. In the past, the law allowed institutions of higher education to set a mandatory retirement age and most did so. Now there is no mandatory retirement age and professors can work as long as they choose.

Also, there used to be a limit to what seniors eligible for a full retirement check could earn without their earnings counting against their social security check. Now there is no limit and a 66 year old worker can pull in a high six figure salary and still collect a full social security check. Social security was never intended to be the icing on the cake and this policy needs to be rethought. Possibly, savings here could be applied to lowering the age for eligibility for Medicare.

There’s no one solution and we need to think about both job creation and job sharing. And job sharing should involve sharing across the generations. To return to Peck’s cautionary tale:

We are living through a slow-motion social catastrophe, one that could stain our culture and weaken our nation for many, many years to come. We have a civic—and indeed a moral—responsibility to do everything in our power to stop it now, before it gets even worse.

Are the tea party folks giving “socialism” a good name?

A few weeks ago I heard a story on NPR about Americans’ changing attitudes towards socialism. I was surprised to hear that 36% of Americans and 53% of Democrats have a positive impression of socialism.

I thought I must have misheard, so went to the Gallup website and sure enough my ears had not deceived me. No surprise, the terms free enterprise and capitalism had much more positive ratings (86 % and 61%respectively).

However, I didn’t expect the favorable responses for socialism to be this high given the way the term has been demonized and given that no elected officials holding national office (except for Vermont’s Bernie Sanders) have embraced the term.

From the Gallup website:

Socialism had the lowest percentage positive rating and the highest negative rating of any term tested. Still, more than a third of Americans say they have a positive image of socialism.
Exactly how Americans define "socialism" or what exactly they think of when they hear the word is not known. The research simply measures Americans' reactions when a survey interviewer reads the word to them -- an exercise that helps shed light on connotations associated with this frequently used term.
There are significant differences in reactions to "socialism" across ideological and partisan groups:
A majority of 53% of Democrats have a positive image of socialism, compared to 17% of Republicans.

So what gives? I decided to check other polls to see if the Gallup poll was an outlier.

An April 2009 Rasmussen poll showed even higher favorable responses for socialism—a story I somehow missed.

Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better.

The most amazing statistic:

Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided.

Something is going on here. Perhaps when those who like President Obama hear all these ( ridiculous) charges that Obama is a socialist, instead of feeling less positive about Obama, they feel more positive about socialism?

Those who find the tea party crowd small-minded and mean-spirited might think if these guys think socialism is so awful, then maybe it’s not that bad after all.

What just about all polls have found is that Americans don’t pay much attention to complicated public policy debates. Most are stressed out, overworked, struggling to keep their heads above water. They don’t have much time (or inclination) to pay serious attention to politics.

But when folks hear ideas grouped together over and over again, unexamined associations can form. The Obama = socialism craziness of the far right might just be having the unintended consequence of making the word socialism a lot less scary!

One of the best things about retirement: Not having to go out on cold snowy days

Sometimes you don’t realize how much you hated something until you no longer have to do it.

That’s how I feel about trudging to work in ice and snow. And give the amount of snow in Philly this year, I am thanking my lucky stars I didn’t decide to work for one more year.

Granted in blizzard conditions, the College would be closed. The real problem came when the storm was over, the roads were partially cleared, school was open, but it was seriously hard to get to work.

Buried deep within me I must have a little bit of the Catholic school girl striving for perfect attendance. In 35 years of teaching I never took a sick day and missed only one day because of snow when, despite my husband’s Herculean efforts, we could not get our car out of the driveway and the R7 train was not running. If it was at all possible, I managed to get to my classes.

I wasn’t conscientious about every aspect of the job. Towards the end I stopped going to department meetings and sometimes didn’t return student papers as quickly as I should have, but I was always super conscientious about showing up. I really identified with what one of my colleagues wrote on Facebook last week:

Faculty who blew off class today when students trudged all the way to school simply suck.

My sentiments exactly.

So given my compulsion to get to work no matter what, it has been such a relief to no longer have to make that effort.

John Judis’ article “The Quiet Revolution: Obama has reinvented the state in more ways than you can imagine.”

John Judis’ article “The Quiet Revolution " is worth a read for progressives unhappy with President Obama.

I don’t understand how progressives who worked so hard to elect Obama are so quick to turn on him for not cleaning up Bush’s mess in a year’s time.

Yes, there are decisions that can be questioned, appointments that can be criticized, but I don’t see how this justifies the 180 degree turn on the part of some in the progressive community.

I too worry about Afghanistan—my biggest reservation about the Obama adminstration. I blame the health care mess largely on spineless Democrats and obstructionist Republicans—a truly dysfunctional Congress.

But there have been some real victories which been overlooked by many progressives. John Judis in his New Republic article makes a compelling case for this:

Yet there is one extremely consequential area where Obama has done just about everything a liberal could ask for--but done it so quietly that almost no one, including most liberals, has noticed. Obama’s three Republican predecessors were all committed to weakening or even destroying the country’s regulatory apparatus: the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the other agencies that are supposed to protect workers and consumers by regulating business practices. Now Obama is seeking to rebuild these battered institutions. In doing so, he isn’t simply improving the effectiveness of various government offices or making scattered progress on a few issues; he is resuscitating an entire philosophy of government with roots in the Progressive era of the early twentieth century. Taken as a whole, Obama’s revival of these agencies is arguably the most significant accomplishment of his first year in office.

There’s a lot of non-sexy detail in this article which is probably why it hasn’t lit up the blogosphere. When I’ve mentioned it to my friends, I’ve discovered that none had heard of it. And probably if I weren’t retired with the time to read a lot of policy stuff, I would have skipped it and gone on to read something more entertaining--like an article about Sarah Palin.

But this is a really important article about how government works and should have an audience beyond policy wonks.

More Thougths on New Year's Resolutions

From my friend Fran Waksler:

I was motivated by Karen’s New Year’s resolutions to consider my own, but I never did get around to an “official” list. I think that the idea of “to-do-list” resolutions is excellent and I at least have a mental idea of what such a list should be.

Two hours a day of writing would be a useful goal for me, though other stuff keeps getting in the way. I also like the idea of 20 minutes a day of dealing with junk—it’s been on my mind, but I’ve made only a little progress so far. It can be useful with to-do lists to give some wiggle-room. I have found that the most effective to-do lists include things that you want to do so Karen might add “two hour breakfasts” to her list. I also think it best to follow the list 5 days a week, not 7; that way one can miss a day or two and still keep to the list.

Taking stock with record-keeping, as Karen does, is a great idea. It can help to be more focused and also feel less like one is not getting anything done. So what did I do in January? I continued to send out materials to publishers and may have an actual nibble from one!

My first goal in retirement was to find publishers for a bunch of materials and while I haven’t been successful in the search, I’ve worked out a method of keeping things circulating. It turns out to be remarkably time-consuming. I’ve been doing lots of reading (but just in English), so that will take care of itself.

I alternate between the academic/quasi-academic and the lighter stuff, e.g., English mysteries that are charmingly described as “cosies.” (As an aside, I share a birthday with Wilkie Colllins—the day, not the year!--so try every year to being reading one of his novels on “our” birthday. This year it was Fallen Leaves.)

I have cleaned out one bureau drawer full of junk—made some interesting discoveries! Put some books out in front of the house for people to take—some have been taken, but I keep having to bring them in because of the weather and then get lazy about putting them back out. And I’ve started a bag of clothes to bring to Goodwill.

I do go to the gym pretty faithfully 3 times a week (in part to stay in shape for gardening) and, when weather allows, walk my dog a mile a day, but weather has not been allowing much lately. I’ve been doing lots of dog training and will be entering obedience trials with Greta. And I’ve done lots of knitting (see photo of Norman’s dog Duchess with the sweater I made for her). Spelling it out this way is helpful—it looks like a lot more than it feel like.

I think retirement takes some getting used to. Hardest for me is that I still never seem to have enough time. The other day I thought of something I’d love to do—can’t remember what—and heard myself saying, “Maybe I’ll have time when I retire.” Oops.

Fran




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In praise of New Year’s resolutions: I didn’t keep them, but I’m glad I made them.

Maybe it’s a silly gimmick, but as a retiree I need help keeping track of my time. It’s easy to let the days slip by without doing much of anything. The Italians have a phrase for this-—dolce far niente, sweet doing nothing.

Yes, it is pleasant to just relax and hang out, but I really want to finish Feminism in Philly: The Glory Years within the next few years. So I have to make sure dolce far niente doesn’t take over my life.

Less urgent than the book project, but high on my list, is really learning Spanish. I resolved to spend at least 2 hours a day on my book and 30 minutes reading books/articles in Spanish.

So how did I do? In the month of January, I averaged 54 minutes a day on my book and 18 minutes a day on Spanish. Not great, but if I hadn’t been keeping track, I’m sure it would have been much worse. (The Spanish number is somewhat inflated as I included my Spanish group at which more English than Spanish is spoken.)

The biggest failure was exercise. I had resolved to swim or walk briskly for 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. This averages 12.8 minutes per day of aerobic exercise. I managed a pathetic 3.5 minutes a day.

For people in their 60’s, it’s “use it or lose it” time with our brains and our bodies. Supposedly learning something new (like a language) is a great anti-Alzheimer’s strategy. So I guess I have that covered with Spanish.

I put exercise on my list primarily for my husband. I get a whole lot of exercise in my daily life. I’m a fidgeter and a forgetful fidgeter who lives in a 3 story house, so I'm continually running up and down stairs. During the gardening season I get a lot of weight bearing exercise lugging 50 lb. bags of fertilizer.

But my husband is nowhere near as active on a daily basis. I want him alive and well for a long time, so I’m trying to get him to exercise. Several years ago we joined a health club with a good laps pool. We hardly ever used it and vowed when we were retired we would swim 3 times a week. Well, it hasn’t worked out that way and keeping track of this really brought it home to me. I’m determined that we’ll do better.

My final resolution was to spend at least 20 minutes a day on the kind of housework which is not done as part of my weekly routine: cleaning kitchen cabinets and junk-filled drawers, tackling a filthy basement and cluttered attic. I managed an average of 9.3 minutes a day—-better than the 3.5 minutes on aerobic exercise, but still pathetic.

All this record keeping may seem a little silly, but I’m kind of getting into competing against myself and reaching my goals in February.

Anybody have any progress reports on their New Year’s resolutions?

Another advantage of retirement: Flexibility about travel dates

I’ve been following the horror stories coming from Peru re. the floods and mudslides at Macchu Picchu. According to our tour group, the Peruvian government said it will take 7 weeks to rebuild the railway to Macchu Picchu. It's clear we will not be going to Macchu Picchu in early March.

As all my friends have been telling me when I’ve bemoaned the cancelled trip, “you’re lucky you’re not there now.”

It apparently was pretty brutal: tourists were trapped for days with no place to sleep and food and water supplies were running dangerously low. (Of course, considering the destruction of the homes of so many Peruvians, the temporary suffering of tourists is relatively inconsequential.)

A representative of our tour agency said their travelers who are in Peru now have all been evacuated and they all decided to continue the trip. They are a lot more adventurous than I would have been. After an experience like that, I think I would just want to go home and crawl into bed for a few days.

So we are now in the process of rescheduling the trip. If my husband and I were still working and had planned to travel to Peru over our Spring break, we would have had a major problem. But as retirees we are flexible about rescheduling.

I had wanted to do take this trip in early March so it wouldn’t interfere with the beginning of the gardening season. I had thought that for the first time in my life, I would have time to do a real Spring clean-up. Also, once my little beauties start popping up, I just don’t want to travel. But as my husband says, you can’t forego travel anytime between early March and late September because you might miss the bloom period of a plant or two. He has a point.

The travel agency said we have to be aware that the trip date could change once again, if the Peruvian government finds the damage is more extensive than they thought. It’s fortunate we can be flexible. We might have to reschedule this trip once again.

The Impulse Trip: One of the best things about retirement

When my husband and I were working, we only traveled during summer vacation or semester breaks. My husband often wanted to go to NYC for a week-end, but I was always too exhausted—too many papers to grade, classes to prepare, memos to write. In addition to my teaching job, for the past 8 years I served as president of Philadephia NOW. Juggling responsibilities from both my paid and unpaid jobs took up all my dwindling energy.

I didn’t want to give up my volunteer job, which I enjoyed more than the paid job, so the consequence was total exhaustion. The impulse trip to NYC was out of the question.

Now there are no more papers to grade and although I am still active in NOW and other progressive organizations, I no longer have the burden of leadership. So when my husband noticed that the Bauhaus exhibit at MOMA was about to close, he said, “We’ve got to go up to NYC to see it,” my response was, “Sure.”

When we were working, we sometimes managed to get to NYC for major exhibits during summer and semester breaks. We rarely went to a relatively small exhibit like the Bauhaus show. Now we have the luxury of time (at least in the short run).

These small exhibits can be very rewarding. I would never have gone to this on my own. This one was for my husband, who has a strong interest in modernism in general and modernist architecture in particular. But to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. Best of all were the textiles from the women of the Bauhaus.

We’ll be taking more of these day trips to NYC. Given the cost of NYC hotels, we have to limit the number of weekend trips, but we are discovering how easy it is take a day trip. For the first time we took the Bolt Bus, which leaves Philly at 30th Street Station and in two hours arrives near Penn Station for a $26.00 a person round trip. At our age all that driving in one day is just too much.

So, more impulse trips! After all, one of the best things about living in Philly is easy access to NYC!

The Day After

I am really really depressed. As a long-time progressive, activist I’ve dealt with a lot of political disappointments. The worst was the election of Ronald Reagan and the loss of all those liberal Democratic senators. That one changed my life. I abandoned my left wing view that participation in electoral politics was a waste of time, and became a Democratic committeeperson. I have toiled in the grassroots (and more recently the netroots) ever since.

What happened last night in MA was especially hard after the euphoria of Obama’s 2008victory, and the probability that health care was finally within reach. Sure it’s not a perfect bill, but that’s how social reform in this country has always worked. First, establish the principle—e.g., everyone deserves to live in dignity in old age—and then work to gradually improve the legislation so more and more people are included. That happened with social security, with Medicare and it looked like it might happen with health care.

I received an email from a good friend who lives in Cambridge MA; she expressed much of the anger and frustration I feel.

From Fran Waksler:
I’m appalled at the outcome of the election. I’m furious at Coakley for not taking the election seriously and waiting so long to campaign. I’m furious at the DNC for not supplying support until it was too late. And I’m furious at (and very disappointed with) the voters of MA. The insult to Kennedy’s memory makes the Democratic loss even worse. I think my greatest anger is towards voters who only gave Obama a year and then faulted him for not having cleaned up Bush’s mess. Now, the day after, I can’t even listen to the news—any news—because I don’t want to hear about the election. I can see through my study window that tiny buds have appeared on the Rose of Sharon. I think I’ll spend the day contemplating them.

The line that jumps out at me is:

I think my greatest anger is towards those who only gave Obama a year and then faulted him for not having cleaned up Bush’s mess.

I’m trying to pick myself up off the floor and soldier on. This message from my friend labor leader John Meyerson helped:

Back off the ledge my brothers and sisters, the Massachusetts election was not about Health Care or even Obama and progress. The voters simply did not like Martha. I personally spoke to about one hundred voters and not one told me anything different. Mass was not ready for this election so now we all have to dig in and work harder and longer but no one promised this was going to be easy.

And from health care activist Marc Stier:

Attention please: the world has not come to an end. Health care is alive. The Democrats are going to lose less than the average number of seats in November. And Obama is going to crush any Republican who runs against him in 2012 because as even Newt Gingrich knew, while a party of no can temporarily embody the fears...

Marc and John are both smart, politically savvy guys. Hope they’re right.

It’s not too late to phone bank for Martha Coakley. Elections are won and lost on Election Day!

I have been obsessing about the Massachusetts senate race for the past few weeks. When I got the email from Obama for America asking for phone-bank volunteers, I saw it as a chance to assuage my anxiety—do some work! If Martha Coakley lost by one vote, I’d hate myself for not doing my part to get out her voters. And then when you’re retired, there’s no excuse.

I’ve never liked phone-banking. I did some last week for Planned Parenthood—calling constituents in targeted House districts urging them to call their representatives to make sure the final health care bill did not weaken abortion rights. It was kind of fun using Planned Parenthood’s new state of the art Activate phone bank system, but the responses were not exactly fun.

Just about all the folks who picked up the phone were seniors. Many were not very receptive to my message. When I said I was calling from Planned Parenthood several started laughing and said things like, “I’m 77 years old. What in the world does Planned Parenthood have to do with me?” I decided that it was not worth trying to convince them they had a stake in a society in which women have a choice when and if to be a mother. Not sure I accomplished much that day.

I’ve always preferred phone-banking for a candidate rather than for issues—-especially if it’s a candidate I really believe in or (like Coakley vs. Brown) a race that’s critically important to a progressive agenda. But no matter how much I care about the race, I’ve never been very good at phone-banking.

I noticed that the younger people in the room seemed much more skilled in the art of phone–banking, sounding more natural, looking more engaged, actually seeming to enjoy the experience. I was adequate, but I don’t think anyone would get the impression I was having fun. Any experienced phone bankers out there with some tips to improve my game?

I plan to go back today. If I lived in Massachusetts, I’d be knocking on doors. I firmly believe the old adage that elections are won and lost on Election Day.

The Old House Blues

I love my house, but it has been problem after problem of late. The valves on all our ancient radiators went bad and did a lot of damage to our window sills; the roof over our front bedrooms needs to be replaced and on and on.

The people who come to repair the various problems tend to say, “This house should never have been built this way. The pipes should never have gone directly into the wall or the roof over the bedrooms should have been much steeper etc.etc. The builder and/or architect were probably not all that skilled. (The house was built in 1916.)

My husband said, “Maybe we should never have bought this house." I was kind of upset by this. It was almost like a parent saying, “Maybe we should never have had this child.’’ He later said he didn’t mean it.

Warts and all, I love my house. Even more I love my garden. One of my recurrent bad dreams is that we have sold the house and I can’t get into my garden to tend my beloved plants.

We bought the house largely for the garden. It’s not easy to get a city lot that it is a half acre. So okay, it may not have been the greatest investment, but I love it and I love my plants. They’re like old friends who for the most part reliably come back year after year.

So I am trying not to get too bent out of shape by the latest problem: once again pipes built into the walls are breaking down, destroying the wall which will need to be cut so pipes can be removed and replaced. Then the wall will have to be replastered and repainted. I just hope it can be done before a 60th birthday party I am having for a very dear friend in late Feb. If not, I guess we’ll just all have to avert our eyes from the ugliness in my living room.

Despite it all, I love my house, and we intend to say here as long as we can!

Something we have never done before: group travel

My husband and I have traveled a lot but always as individual travelers. We wanted our freedom. We didn’t want to deal with some group leader telling us we had to get up at 6:00 a.m. to catch the tour bus, we didn’t want to follow somebody else’s itinerary—no, that’s not what travel is about.

Also over the years, we’ve developed our style of traveling—spending a lot of time hanging out in cafes, doing less per day but really savoring each experience. I always felt so sorry for those tourists herded through museums with maybe a few minutes before each painting before being marched back to the tour bus. No, we would never travel like that. And in addition to being free to do what we like, part of the fun was trying to figure out how to get from place to place, to navigate the public transport systems.

But now we are in our 60’s and we decided that for certain destinations maybe we should consider a group. We don’t need a group for Europe, but for a trip to Peru it might make sense. We’ve always wanted to see Macchu Picchu and decided it’s now or never. For people our age, the altitude might be a challenge; having the support of a group in case of altitude sickness might have its advantages. And, making all the arrangements ourselves would be much more expensive than the economies of scale we could get with a group.

A tour agency which specializes in older travelers was highly recommended by some of our friends, so we decided to take the plunge and book their "Real Affordable Peru Trip.” When I first mentioned to my husband that this was a company specializing in senior travelers, he said, “I don’t want to travel with a bunch of geezers!” I reminded him that we too were geezers and perhaps he wouldn’t want to have to keep up with twenty year olds.

Another challenge: my husband, who is something of a polymath, has a tendency to correct the tour leaders. Sometimes we've taken group visits to museums—usually when the only way you could visit was in a group. Correcting the tour leaders’ pronunciation/ information in a two hour one-shot museum visit was one thing, but this could get a little dicey if we’re traveling with the same group for a couple of weeks. So let’s hope he can keep this impulse under control.

Anybody have any advice for two novices at group travel?

I’ve never played the New Year’s resolution game, but this year I came to the conclusion that I need that kind of to-do list

I’ve never played the New Year’s resolution game, but this year I came to the conclusion that I need that kind of to-do list. One of the great rewards of retirement—all that unstructured time-- is also one of the great dangers.

My husband I have developed the delightful habit of having 2 hour breakfasts drinking tea, reading newspapers and trying to catching up on the ever-growing pile of unread periodicals. We really like print and resist getting all our info on line.

Much as I enjoy our 2 hour breakfasts, I must manage to get some work done each day. I’ve got to finish my history of second wave feminism in Philadelphia while I have (I think) full possession of my faculties. I’m sitting on a treasure trove of archival material that a graduate student in history would die for. I’ve promised those who gave me this material that I would tell their story.

A friend suggested that I commit to 15 minutes a day. Now at that rate I’ll never finish, but I am going to try for 2 hours a day. I’m keeping track of how much I’ve done each day. On Jan. 2, I managed to do one hour—-but then I was cleaning up after our NY’s party. Without that 2 hour resolution hanging over my head, I’m sure I wouldn’t have done any work on this project.

I decided to apply my friend’s a few minutes a day principle to my other resolutions:

1) Each day I will spend 30 minutes reading books/articles in Spanish. We booked a trip to Peru in early Spring, so I have an incentive to focus on Spanish. On Jan. 2, I actually managed 30 minutes.

2) Each day I will spend at least 20 minutes a day cleaning cabinets and emptying drawers filled with junk, tackling the dumping ground in our attic and the filth in our dungeon like basement. I didn’t manage to do this on Jan. 2 despite the modest 20 minute goal. This is going to be the tough one.

3) Each day I will swim or walk briskly for 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. If we are ever to manage Macchu Picchu, we need to be in better shape. No progress here on Jan 2.

Well, we’ll see if this keeps me more focused on how I’m spending my time.

If anyone has any suggestions, for sticking to one’s New Year’s resolutions, please share.