If, like Dylan Thomas, they had the skill to write a villanelle*
many oldsters might still be reluctant to say
that their retirement can often be a kind of Hell.
Perhaps they were happy in their day,
with spouses, children and careers as well,
yet with Time , bad things can come their way.
Their skin will wrinkle and limbs will swell;
and their attempts to indulge in love and play
be often awkward and ridiculous as well.
Each day becomes a a Saturday or Sunday
for many making so much time off cruel
when they'd rather be at work on a Monday.
Edward Bellamy long ago rang this bell;
His Looking Backward showed the way:
One should retire at 45, while still young and well.
Or, retirefirst like Prince Charles , that most Royal Snob
and wait and wait...until you're in your eighty's ...to get a job?
hzl
1/28/15
*vil·la·nelle
ˌviləˈnel/
noun
a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Author Notes
DT's father was going blind when DT wrote this poem. The dying of the light is a reference to darkness and being blind.
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts; it was first ...
From: hzlehrer@hotmail.com To: hzlehrer@hotmail.com Subject: 10 Things Retirees Won't Tell Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2015 05:11:29 -0500
Each day, roughly 10,000 baby boomers turn 62—the average age at which people actually retire, according to a recent Gallup poll. By some estimates, there are more retirees living in our midst than ever before. And their numbers are growing: By around 2030, nearly one in five Americans will be over the age of 62.
Birds do it. Bees do it. Partners who are just as old as these do it.
7. We still get frisky
This may come as a shock to the younger generation, but your grandma and grandpa likely still get it on. While men and women ages 57 — 72 years old have less sex than their younger counterparts, they’re still having sex. Nearly three in four men and about half of women in the age group report that they are sexually active, having sex an average of about four times a month, according to a study published in 2011 in The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences.
All that frisky behavior sometimes has negative consequences. While rates of sexually transmitted diseases are still much higher among younger than older Americans, the 55-and-over set saw an uptick in infection rates for some sexually transmitted diseases between 2007 and 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even HIV is becoming a problem for older Americans: 19% of the 1.1 million people living with an HIV infection in America are 55 or older, and 5% (or 2,500) of the new HIV infections in 2010 were from this age group, according to the CDC.
Shutterstock
Retirees can’t count on this.
9. That big Hawaii trip? It’s more like a pipe dream
But while they lust after frequent trips to far-flung locales in retirement, the reality is much different for most. About 59% of older workers say they plan to travel more in retirement, according to the NPR/Harvard/RWJF survey. But only 31% actually do so; in contrast, 34% of retirees say they take fewer trips than they did in the five years before retiring.
There are many reasons that retirees can’t just jet off to far-flung locales, including financial constraints. One in four retirees say one of the top things they’d change about their retirement is that they would have saved more for travel, the Transamerica survey revealed. Lowenthal notes that health issues, especially those that limit mobility or cause aches and pains, may make travel “less comfortable and more trouble than it’s worth,” while others, like incontinence, are embarrassing. She also notes that spending time with grandchildren, another goal for many retirees, often competes for time and money with more ambitious travel plans.
In a typical doctor's visit, you wait around for a while, get your vitals checked, and spend a few minutes alone in a room with a physician. It's private and short. Some doctors, frustrated by a relentless schedule of 15-minute, one-on-one visits, are experimenting with appointments that are neither.
According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, around 10 percent of family doctors already offer shared medical appointments, sessions that bring together a dozen or more patients with similar medical conditions to meet with a doctor for 90 minutes. With pressure from the government and insurers to bring down the cost of care while treating the increasing number of people with health insurance, patients can expect group visits to become more common. "It’s efficient. It’s economical. It’s high-quality care when it’s done right," says Edward Noffsinger, a California psychologist who created the model in the 1990s at Kaiser Permanente, the state's largest health maintenance organization (HMO).
In a group visit, exams and tests are still conducted privately, but patients discuss their ailments in front of the group. The theory is that each patient can learn from the others' experience, and doctors get to have a longer, more relaxed discussion instead of hopscotching to three or four exam rooms in an hour. "You have one appointment with 10 observers," says Marianne Sumego, an internist at the Cleveland Clinic. "Patients are really getting the equivalent of 10 visits." Sumego started doing shared visits 15 years ago and has led the health system's expansion of the practice in the past four years. She says Cleveland Clinic has conducted more than 10,000 group visits in recent years. The approach is particularly useful for patients who are managing such chronic conditions as diabetes, asthma, or osteoporosis, she says. Sumego also conducts regular group checkups for women. "This model is really attractive in being able to let me spend more time with my patients," she says.
As for the effectiveness of group medical visits, there haven't been extensive studies. An analysis of existing research published by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2012 found that the approach helped diabetics control blood sugar and blood pressure, but what the impact is on hospital admissions or total health-care costs was less conclusive. There's some evidence that group pain treatment may help manage such conditions as back pain or arthritis, according to a review by the Cochrane Collaboration, which synthesizes medical evidence. Another Cochrane review, covering just two studies, found similar outcomes for pregnant women in group visits compared with those who got one-on-one prenatal care.
Marianne Sumego, second from left, leads a group medical visit at Cleveland Clinic.
Source: Cleveland Clinic
Here's what is clear: Seeing several patients at once can be good for harried doctors' finances. In 90 minutes, a physician might be able to complete five or six one-on-one visits. A group visit could allow doctors to see double that number or more in the same time, and medical assistants or nurses can take care routine aspects of care—checking patients in, taking vital signs, writing refills of medication.
Often it takes a fair amount of promotion by doctors to get patients interested in exploring group appointments, which require them to sign privacy agreements. "Patients have a lifetime of expecting a one-on-one visit," says Noffsinger. "We’re asking them to do something entirely different."
Noffsinger had spent years counseling seriously ill patients at Kaiser before he got sick himself in 1988, with a life-threatening pulmonary disease that kept him laid up for four years. While he was sick, Noffsinger realized he wanted to see his doctors without waiting for an appointment for weeks. He also wanted to spend more time with them and to connect with other patients who understood what he was going through. He realized that turning one-on-one visits into shared appointments could create enough breathing space in doctors' schedules to do all three.
After he recovered, Noffsinger started doing shared visits at Kaiser in 1996. He has since consulted around the world with doctors who want to try the idea, including at the Cleveland Clinic, hospitals on U.S. military bases, and the Veteran's Health Administration. He went to Boston for a few years, starting in 2007, after health-care reform under then-governor Mitt Romney expanded the number of insured patients in a market that already had some of the longest wait times in the country. "The demand for care had suddenly far exceeded the supply of care available," he says. With insurance coverage expanding across the U.S., group visits may follow.
By Patrick Gillespie @CNNMoneyInvestJanuary 28, 2015: 11:54 AM ET
480
TOTAL SHARES
294
95
91
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Wall Street's bears are back in vogue.
After nearly six years of a surging U.S. stock market, investors are worried about how much longer it will last. Suddenly, the views of the negative Nancys are getting a lot of attention.
The bears build their case that a crisis is near on four factors: falling oil prices, stagnant wages, the "two-edged sword" of a strong US dollar and big trouble abroad.
"Earnings and economic activity are actually weakening, not strengthening," says James Abate, chief investment officer at Centre Asset Management, which manages over $8 billion. "The growth outlook, to us, is deteriorating."
The dollar dilemma: One of the biggest problems companies face right now is the strong U.S. dollar. The euro recently hit an 11-year low of about $1.10 to the euro. It may sound good -- it's more affordable travel to Europe -- but it hurts U.S. companies selling their products abroad.
U.S. exported goods are quickly becoming more expensive -- and less attractive -- to foreign buyers.
Bears Warn
As if it weren't enough,
as well as exceedingly tough,
to deal with Russia, China, Iran and Isis,
Wall Street's Bears now warn, "We're on the Brink of a Crisis":
Consider that Microsoft(MSFT, Tech30) reported solid earnings Tuesday, but its shares dropped as much as 10% because it's forecasting weaker sales abroad due to the strong U.S. dollar. The same is true for Procter & Gamble(PG) and United Technologies(UTX), some of America's biggest companies, which employ thousands.
"There are limits to how much further the U.S. dollar can appreciate before it starts to bite more seriously into economic activity," says Sheryl King, senior director of research at Roubini Global Economics and a former Bank of America economist.
Oil's onerous cost: Similar to the dollar, there are two sides to the dramatic drop in oil prices from over $100 a barrel last summer to $45 now. Americans love cheap gas at the pump, but low oil prices are forcing corporations to scale back on jobs and spending.
The oil sector has added over a half million jobs -- many of them high paying -- since the recession ended in June 2009. That's 13% of all US job growth over that period.
Now energy companies and related sectors are laying off thousands. Expect that trend to continue, bears say.
"The plunge in oil prices will continue and lead to more, I think, worry comments as these companies start to report each quarter," says Brian Sozzi, chief equity strategist at Belus Capital Advisors.
It's already hurting corporate earnings. Take Tuesday, for example: the Dow fell 291 points after Caterpillar(CAT), the nation's largest building equipment company, reported a 25% decline in profits due to business slowdown in oil-producing regions.
Concerns abroad: Beyond oil, the global economic picture makes bears believe that the U.S. cannot be the tug boat pulling everyone ahead.
Growth in China is slowing. The Swiss National Bank ignited a "currency war" this month after a surprise move. The European Central Bank is throwing a life raft to its nations drowning in deflation, and Japan is already deflating.
On top of that, Greece just elected a leader almost certain to cause tension with other European leaders and tensions are flaring up again between Russia and the Ukraine.
"Everyone seems to be falling or faltering in some way," abroad, says Matt Kerkhoff, research director at Dow Theory Letters, an online newsletter. The American economy, "cannot really outperform while all the rest are in shambles."
A shift at the Fed: The question is whether American consumers and businesses will spend enough to offset the global slowdown. But so far, wages have been flat for many Americans during the recovery.
Adjusting for inflation, median weekly wages were $790 in the fourth quarter of 2007; they barely budged up 1% to $796 the last quarter of 2014.
While jobs and economic activity gained momentum last year, wages still lag behind. Some bears see wages, not job growth, becoming the key deciding factor for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. The central bank will make its first policy announcement of 2015 on Wednesday.
Experts across the spectrum see 3.5% wage growth as the key number the Fed wants to see before it raises rates. At the moment, wage growth is only 1.7% annually.
"The reality is, until wage inflation goes up, I think the Fed is going to stay on hold for as long as it takes, if ever basically," says Abate of Centre Asset Management. "Productivity is going down, not up. And that's a big problem to real wage gains."
Weaving their four factors together, the bears' quilt for 2015 is quickly looking gloomy and gray. The U.S. markets are already overdue for a correction -- a drop of 10% or more -- and this global backdrop could exacerbate the fall when it comes.
Getty Images
Shutterstock
