Pearls of Peace: A Family Psychologist’s Circle-of-Life Blog

The Other Eclipse

Eclipse chasers traveled to find quality view spots for today’s solar eclipse. Our Sun, compared to average stars, is “young!” While this total eclipse lasts 4 minutes (plus seconds) on one day, what about young children who are eclipsed daily in their families and education?

April 6^th -12^th is Week of the Young Child, a National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) event, first celebrated in 1971. It is critical to acknowledge early childhood (birth-age 8) as foundational for each child’s sunny opportunities going forward. Young children lacking positive role models during their earliest years may encounter impeded progress in schooling and overall wellbeing. NAEYC shines a spotlight on quality classrooms, strong child advocacy and positive family dynamics.

With an educational focus on kids’ early years, what about all of us getting jazzed about activities for tots and tomorrow’s teens?

Make a dancing playlist for Music Monday. Create a new dance. Dance with joy!
Consider a new family dinner on Tasty Tuesday. Try new recipes with kids. Cooking is more fun with kitchen company.
Work Together Wednesday has a collaborative goal for adults to contact elected leaders to express the need to invest in quality early childhood education.
Use creativity in art/craft activities on Artsy Thursday.
Plan to use #WOYC24 resources for Family Friday.(https://www.naeyc.org/events/woyc/overview)

My 30+ year book club meets today to discuss family and peer dynamics of two inner city youth who grew up in Baltimore with the same name – Wes Moore (The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates). One Wes became Governor of Maryland. Enroute to political leadership, Moore was a Rhodes Scholar, a successful entrepreneur in delivering education technology supporting college students, and an executive director of Robin Hood Foundation, a nonprofit fighting poverty in New York City. Much loved by his mother, his father died of an acute illness when Wes was only 3 years old.

The other Wes Moore also missed his father (due to alcoholism). Again, there was a loving mother, but she struggled when Pell Grant funding for her college education was not extended. This Wes was eclipsed by an older brother who became a drug dealer. Wes struggled to find an identity of his own. He made a fatal mistake of following his brother to a jewelry store robbery. Wes became incarcerated with a life sentence as his brother killed the police officer (a father of 5) who worked as a security guard at the jewelry store.

Navajo (Dine’) tradition casts the Sun as a father figure. When fathers are missing or overshadowed by their own issues, children require not just a village but a whole country traveling with them. Quality education and caretaking of our precious youth must become a nation-wide priority. How many more individuals might shine brightly if provided with a positive environment and quality education possibilities?

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

279. What family dynamics made a significant difference in your early years?

280. How might excellent educational systems become possibilities for all?

Creativity Enhances Aging

I co-presented a workshop on Creative Engagement at the American Society on Aging conference in San Francisco last week. Research shows that older adults who participate in creative actions have improved cognition and proprioception, enhanced meaning in their life, reduced loneliness, and recognition/engagement in a social life. Creativity makes brains bloom!

There were notable speakers on diverse topics, but I will highlight presentations focusing on aging brains. Maureen Nash, MD, assesses and treats behavioral disturbance in older adults with mental illness or dementia in Portland, OR, where she is Medical Director at Providence Elderplace. In 2020 she was named Clinician of the Year by the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.

Nash’s key points are encouraging for those who fear that aging is a down-facing dog pose in life with no possible upward movement. Here are takeaway notes from an award-winning psychiatry specialist:

It is possible to develop new synapses in older adulthood. While older adults have reduced speed in learning new information, their “bigger networks” and life experiences can lead to an increased ability for problem-solving.
The best way to provide dementia care is to identify an individual’s unmet physical and psychological needs. Match interventions to the reasons behind their behaviors. It is possible to foster resilience in older adults with dementia.

Another session on the dementia journey focused on recovering resilience with music interventions (Vanderbilt University Music Research Institute). Music has roots in multiple branches in brains. One creative approach that includes individuals who are bed-ridden is to provide a small piano with wheels so that a pianist rolls into hospice settings, hospitals, memory centers, and rehabilitation spaces. It is important to get a playlist of familiar songs for each person. When some individuals no longer talk, they suddenly may sing along when a favorite song from their past returns them to an early memory.

Julene Johnson, PhD, at University of California, San Francisco, believes in “waking up” a person with dementia. A previous flute major, Johnson imagines a world where everyone has access to music, but especially those with dementia. Her colleague, social worker Dan Cohen, founder of the nonprofit organization Music & Memory, has a Netflix documentary that is inspiring. Check out Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory, to see a joy-filled intervention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9IHUPamCB4

As stated in the documentary, “Music can be a back door into the mind.” What might happen if we extended more research and focus with this gateway to the inner branching of brains in caring for older adults instead of spending millions of dollars on medical prescriptions that many physicians admit are not game changers?

Kim McCoy Wade, Senior Advisor for Aging, Disability and Alzheimer’s (Office of California Governor), recommends that everyone participate in positive aging: “Give people an action. What is your pro-aging action?”

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

277. What music would make your personal playlist?

278. If you have musical talent, where might you volunteer to make brains bloom?

Golden Pearls

NBC’s Entertainment division president Brandon Tartikoff pitched this assignment (to two men) for a new show in the 1980’s: “Take some women around 60. Society has written them off, has said they’re over the hill. We want them to be feisty as hell and having a great time.” Tartikoff reportedly was told by one man that NBC would never air such a show. There was concern about an all-female cast (who became The Golden Girls), so the pilot episode also featured a gay housekeeper named “Coco” (played by Charles Levin). Dubbed “the fancy man in the kitchen,” he offered the Golden Girls tea and made enchiladas rancheros for them; he disappeared by episode two.

Writers interpreted “having a good time” to be sassy and sexy. “Blanche” (played by Rue McClanahan) bragged in season six that she had been in 143 relationships with men, while “Dorothy” (Bea Arthur) chalked up 43 guys, “Rose” (Betty White) had 30 companions, and “Sophia” (Estelle Getty playing Dorothy’s mother) added 25 notches to her belt. The Golden Girls’ sex quips even crossed the ocean to give Queen Elizabeth II’s mother, a huge fan of the show, some spice in 1988 at the London Palladium. This quip was part of the London episode: when “Dorothy” asked “Blanche” how long she waited to have sex after her husband died, “Sophia” jumped in with the response, “Until the paramedics came.”

Busy with a growing family and a demanding career in the 80’s, I may be one of a small number of people to never watch The Golden Girls. I recently asked other women what they thought about the show. Their responses were fascinating. The Golden Girls TV show was simply entertaining to some; despite canned laughter, others found feminist stronghold messages. People have different perceptions, but 30+ years later there still is a following of folks watching reruns.

Online I learned one of the more educational details about this show — actress Bea Arthur suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), as did Susan Harris, a writer for the show. Bea’s character, “Dorothy,” in season 5 becomes ill but her doctor tells her that there is nothing wrong with her. Finally, “Dorothy” is diagnosed with CFS. For the many suffering from this mysterious and disabling condition, the show became validating. “Dorothy” shares other personal details that women experience — as a teenager “Dorothy” becomes pregnant and marries quickly. After 38 years of marriage her husband leaves her for a young flight attendant.

Life takes challenging turns. There are many single women in their older years due to widowhood, divorce, or never marrying. Some of today’s encore women are trying out the Golden Girls version of co-living, bunking together in one home, to save money and fend off loneliness. Time will tell if their experiment works well for them.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

275. What TV series offers stories that you find poignant?

276. Do you know any women who decided to live together to share costs?

Growth Pearls

The Pew Research Center issued a December report (2023) showing 19% of Americans ages 65+ are in the workforce, either by choice or necessity. This number doubled in the past 35 years, partly due to older adults maintaining good bodymind health. Many more in this labor group have a college degree than decades ago. Also, work conditions have changed; office jobs are overtaking the physical labor necessary in factories and farms.

You may ask, “What motivates those who choose to continue working?” Answers range from being bored with golf or pickleball to the desire for a sense of purpose. Jane Goodall (89 years-young) continues her ecology-motivated passion for chimpanzees as well as her initiative to teach youth about conservation. Her legacy Roots & Shoots youth movement, beginning with 12 teenagers on her back porch in Tanzania, now offers programming in 100 countries. Working actresses Judi Dench (88 years-young) and Helen Mirren (78 years-young) also love their careers and defy sexist stereotypes for female actors.

Many everyday seasoned citizens return to the workforce after “retirement age.” A spunky teacher in her 60’s returned to the classroom as a substitute teacher at a private school where she puts in an 8-hour day instead of the 16-hour days that she frequently found herself working in a public high school. Her reason for a continuation of her career reflects my own reason for my current work in prevention psychology: “It’s fun, and it keeps my brain going.” I am a strong proponent of maintaining a growth mindset for every age, but it is especially important for those of us who are lucky enough to reach the seasoned citizen stage of development.

The research of psychologist Carol Dweck (Mindset: The New Psychology of Success) defines two mindsets:

Fixed mindset: You believe your qualities are set in neurological and psychological plaster—you have a fixed IQ, a set personality, and a certain moral character that defines you. A fixed mindset is a learned behavior.
Growth mindset: You believe that you are capable of continuing growth. Your personality is flexible. It has plasticity. You cultivate new qualities through your efforts. You can adjust your moral compass with your life wisdom. Your true potential is unknown.

I am not suggesting that aging into 65+ territory is easy, even for those with a growth mentality for lifelong learning. I believe that it takes a growth-and-grit mindset in your beyonder years. Psychologist Angela Duckworth (Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance) researched the importance of grit or what my parents called “stick-to-itiveness.” Duckworth’s father taught her about the value of “pushing through and doing the hard things.”

I watched the enduring persistence of the first flower pushing through snow in my garden; the Lenten Rose inspires me to make a growth-and-grit mindset my everyday compass.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

273. When do you respond to life’s challenges with a fixed mindset?

274. What times can you recall when you were in growth mindset territory?

Gender Equality – A Moonshot?

International Women’s Day was celebrated with “her-story” highlighted on March 8^th with 2024’s theme of #InspireInclusion. The moonshot theme each year is a call to set right the global issues that impact women. In 1908 in New York City 15,000 women marched to petition for shorter working hours, equal pay, and the right to vote.

While becoming an official day of international commemoration in 1977 (initially recognized by the United Nations in 1975), a much earlier global movement had emerged in 1910 when German feminist Clara Zetkin called for an international event during the Second Conference of Working Women held in Copenhagen. The 100 women in attendance from 17 countries unanimously supported Zetkin’s proposal.

During World War I women protested the war which churned on from 1914-1918. In 1917 a significant women’s protest in Russia (held on the Julian calendar date of February 23^rd — March 8^th in Europe’s Gregorian calendar) was an influence in Russia dropping out of the war and gave International Women’s Day their special date. Stalwart Russian women organized their protest for “bread and peace.”

This year protests were wide-ranging. In Thailand protestors highlighted the need for longer maternity leave with members of Thai labor unions wearing purple pregnancy dresses. German protestors focused on women’s need for better working conditions. In London’s Parliament Square protestors sought to bring attention to girls’ right to education in Afghanistan. Groups of protestors in downtown Seoul, Korea, called for freedom for Palestinian women while supporters for families of missing and kidnapped Israeli women staged a protest in Cape Town at the South African parliament.

Despite the reforms afforded to women today, the harsh realities of inequality still exist. In America women earned 83 cents for every dollar that men earned in 2022 (84 cents in 2024), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Internationally, women’s average disposable income rates 31% lower than for men. Gender equality cannot exist when there is such widespread income inequality.

According to UNICEF statistics, world-wide since 1995 the proportion of young women married as children has declined from 1 in 4 to 1 in 5. Equality is a pokey process. Globally, nearly 1 billion girls and women lack the job skills they need for the fast-changing job market; 1 in 4 girls (ages 15-19) are not receiving an education or job training as compared to 1 in 10 boys in this age range.

The UNICEF initiative, Skills4Girls Portfolio, hopes to reach 11.5 million adolescent girls with job skill-building by 2025. For example, in Jordan only half of all young women are either employed or engaged in educational training programs. Through mobile Innovation Labs, Skills4Girls provides girls with training in coding and 21^st century business skills.

It seems unbelievable when we can send technology to reach the moon that we still lack “bread and peace” for our planet’s earthlings.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

271. Where do you see gender inequality in education?

272. How might you engage in the effort to uplift girls’ skillsets?

Leap Year Ladies

Did you even notice that we had one more day in February this past week? It was a good day for recognizing good women! On 2-29-24 President Biden issued a proclamation for Women’s History Month (March 1^st-31^st): “…we celebrate the courageous women who have helped our Nation build a fairer, more just society…though their stories too often go untold, all of us stand on the shoulders of these sung and unsung trailblazers…women are seated at every table where decisions are made….” This Administration boasts a record number of ladies-a-leaping cabinet secretaries.

I was not aware of the number of females named as cabinet secretaries (5), but I always recognize Leap Years. Two women in my family hold February 29^thbirthdays.

My maternal extended family honored my grandmother, Bertha (Alice) Ryan Whitacre, on a countrywide internet celebration. From North Carolina to Washington (and several states in-between), one remaining daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren gathered around the Zoom firepit to share memories. Grandma, called “Lady” by Grandpa, lived a long life (1896-1986) and was mother to 10 children (and miscarried 3 more). However, at age 12 she dreamed of becoming a missionary, even changing her middle name to Ryan as she admired Bertha Ryan, a missionary working with orphans in India.

Grandma waited until age 8 to have a February 29^th birthday celebration. At the turn of the century in 1900 there was no extra day in February. According to Aunt Joyce, birthdays were not a big deal “back then,” although she recalled that along with her 9 siblings in childhood years, everyone celebrated Grandma’s un-birthdays at midnight on February 28^th by banging on pots and pans. In honor of Aunt Joyce’s joy-filled memory, we had Zoom instructions to crash pan lids together. One cousin beat on a pan like a drum.

Meanwhile, my brother had a live celebration with another extended family, sending balloons skyward at sunset in memory of his wife’s Leap Year birthday. Pancreatic cancer cut short Pamela Scope Clark’s life (1960-2009). The helium-filled balloons all stayed together in a cluster until they were out of sight, perhaps a metaphor for how important it is for families to “stick together” through thick and thin. My sister-in-law Pam was mother to one son and step-mother to a second son, although as an obstetrics charge nurse she helped countless babies make the leap from watery wombs to first breath.

Likely you have strong women in your acquaintances, whether Leap Year babies or not, who left legacies of everyday courage. Grandma is remembered for being a “gentle woman of steel.” This description also applies to my sister-in-law as well as many other women.

Women’s contributions too often are invisible in our “his-story” books. It is the unsung heroines whose quiet strength we most need to honor during Women’s “Her-story” Month.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

269. Who among your acquaintances is an unsung lady to remember this month?

270. How might you celebrate “gentle women of steel” during this Women’s History Month?

Resilient Black Leadership

The 2024 Black History Month theme is “African Americans and the Arts.” Bisa Butler is a role model for this theme; her quilted-fabric art, The Safety Patrol, reflects the potential of seven children. Butler’s central figure wears a sash depicting his leadership and caretaking of children as they prepare to cross a street safely. The lettering “OK” (on a diagonal on the leader’s shirt) and his left yellow eye are details that Butler further suggests are showing protection for his young charges. Her exquisite fabric art captivates audiences with a sense of determination and resilience displayed in each stitching of color-filled faces. Her figures appear ready to leap off their multi-layered wall hangings with intention.

Intentions have power. Lester Strong, leaving a broadcasting career where he won Emmys for public affairs programming, holds positive intentions for youth resilience. He initiated community dialogues between young people and police officers in Kingston, NY (The Peaceful Guardians Project). Strong was CEO of AARP Experience Corps, offering tutoring and mentoring by adults (55+ years-young) to elementary school children who struggle with reading. The program reached 35,000 students in 23 cities throughout the U.S.

Strong also was Chief Development Officer for BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life) Foundation which targeted tutoring for underserved children in 5 cities (Baltimore, Boston, Detroit, New York, and Springfield, MA). Yet in another CEO post, for SYDA (Siddha Yoga) Foundation, Strong advocates the teaching of global yoga and meditation in 46 countries.

A rising Black leader, this time a historian with a specialty in Southern U.S. and African American history, Brenda Elaine Stevenson, is professor in African-American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Author of several books, Stevenson published What Sorrows Labour in My Parents’ Breast? A History of the Enslaved Black Family in 2023. She quotes Phillis Wheatley, whose poetry provided the title to Stevenson’s book. Wheatley is only one of thousands of enslaved individuals whose determined leadership fueled a resilient adaptation to the so-called “new” world.

Stevenson addresses how slavery forced Black families to make many sacrifices to keep any semblance of family life: “Enslavement did not destroy the Black family. Black people survived and survive today because of families, regardless of how these families may differ structurally and sometimes functionally from the families of other people in our society…our nation still struggles to recognize and respect Black humanity.”

Families of every ethnic background struggle today. And families who stereotype others also struggle whether they are conscious of their prejudice or not. We travel a rocky road to put Martin Luther King, Jr’s dream foremost in our hearts: “…a dream that…little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.” Call me an optimist, but I believe it’s possible.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

267. When have you experienced separations from your family’s “homeland”?

268. What is your experience of recognizing your stereotypes of those who seem “different” from your family?

Presidents’ Day and Myths

George Washington’s birthday (February 22^nd) has been celebrated in the U.S. since the 1800’s. Gifting a 3-day weekend to federal employees in 1968, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved the celebration to the 3^rd Monday in February and added Abraham Lincoln’s February birthday (February 12^th) to the recognition. While there are several half-baked myths about each man, two myths stand out.

Myths are part of every culture. They filter down through generations as “truth” while crisscrossing psychological and sociological issues with embellished narratives. Myths often promote a protagonist (hero) as well as some perceived antagonist. In the past a moral accompanied myth storying. However, amoral and malicious myths also exist.

Washington’s cherry tree chopping is a favorite moral myth and still is passed along to school children. Historians have discounted its truthfulness despite its message of honesty! The myth was invented by one of Washington’s first biographers, traveling minister Mason Locke Weems. The first edition of Pastor Weems’ The Life of Washington was published in 1800, a year after Washington died, but the cherry tree fable did not surface until the book’s 5^th edition in 1806.

The cherry tree myth is about both parental love and truth-telling. As told by Pastor Weems, when young George was 6 years old, he was given a hatchet and exercised his strength on his father’s cherry tree. When Augustine Washington discovered that George was the culprit, he was angry with his son. George admitted the deed, saying, “I cannot tell a lie.” His father forgave him and said that his son’s honesty was worth more than 1000 trees. George was only 11 when his father died.

As self-educated lawyer Lincoln was enroute to inauguration in Washington, D.C. in 1861, he gave a speech in the New Jersey Senate. He named books that he read in childhood that gave him lessons for life – Pilgrim’s Progress, Aesop’s Fables, Lessons in Elocution and The Life of George Washington. He also stopped at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Washington’s birthday, delivering these sentiments: “I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence.”

With such moral convictions tucked under Lincoln’s hat — who said in his Second Inaugural Address, “…with malice toward none, with charity for all” – it is disturbing that the following myth about him was malicious with political intent. The myth stated that Lincoln owned slaves, although neither he nor his father owned slaves. While his wife’s relatives in Kentucky owned slaves, this was not Lincoln’s practice.

Fake news myths are rampant today with the deliberate intent to misinform people. When any narrative is a myth but simply repeated frequently, people tend to believe it is true. The children are listening.

Bake a cherry pie in honor of presidents with truth stories! Throw in some blueberries as I did to honor both Republican and Democratic Presidents.

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

265. What myths influenced your childhood?

266. What books have taught you moral lessons for life?

Lunar New Year

Shaolin Monks Training, China (Photo by Steve McCurry)

More than 20% of our planet — billions of individuals in China, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand (as well as many who live beyond Asia) – will celebrate the Lunar New Year from February 10–24^th this year. Celebrations follow the second new moon after winter solstice (December 21^st). While each culture has various traditions, a major focus centers on prosperity and family reunions.

2024 is the Year of the Wood Dragon. The wood aspect relates to stability, honesty, loyalty, creativity and growth, while the dragon is a symbol of strength and power. Buddhist monks at Shaolin Monastery seem to epitomize “dragon” attributes in a photo on exhibit at Loyola University, Chicago, by photographer Steve McCurry.

Spring cleaning and paying off debts accompanies Chinese celebrations, also known as Spring Festival. The day before the new year kicks off is time to sweep away bad luck and make room for good luck. Spring Festival originally celebrated crop-planning for a largely agrarian culture. Alongside praying to ancestors for successful crops, a myth about a monster accompanies Chinese festivities. Since a young boy fought off the monster named Nian with firecrackers, people enjoy fireworks today to ward off bad luck at midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve. Festival observers set off another round the following morning for good luck.

Traditionally, families swept the tombs of their ancestors and burned fake money to symbolize bringing their ancestors good luck in the afterlife. Families today give money to children, other family members, friends and employees in red envelopes. The digital world has taken this monetary gifting into a new realm; digital “red pockets” have become trendy. People may wear red clothes as red symbolizes energy, happiness and good luck.

The final day of Chinese Lunar New Year celebrating is Festival of Lanterns and includes spiritual traditions. A recognized practice for more than 2000 years (beginning in the Western Han dynasty), many continue to view the holidays (holy days) as religious. The emperor of Eastern Ming dynasty was a Buddhist who initiated the lighting of lanterns. Monks offered prayers.

On a secular note, in early times Chinese women were not allowed to leave their homes. An exception was made for this final day of celebrating Spring Festival; females could be outside the confines of their family, light lanterns, moon gaze, and interact with men. Some call this China’s Valentine Day.

Just writing about spring festivities, I am developing a strong case of spring fever. If we add a Pennsylvania groundhog myth to this possibility-filled celebration, 2024 will be an “early” spring! Cultures embody myths, whether a furry groundhog or a fire-breathing dragon. What else escapes our reality-check these days?

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

263. How might you recognize some symbol in your “early” springtime?

264. Where are you in your pursuit of any New Year’s resolutions?

Digital Zoomers & Boomers

Gen Z’ers (Zoomers) – born between 1997 and 2012 (or currently the ages of 12-27) – have needs that current culture has overlooked. Zoomers are suggested to be the “best educated” generation. In the U.S. 57 % of Zoomers have enrolled in a 2-year or 4-year college (compared to 52% of Millennials and 43% of Gen X). Education has a goal of teaching critical thinking skills, but there is a lag in teaching social skills as Zoomers also are identified as the loneliest generation. Who teaches kindness and sincerity?

Chinese sage Confucious (551-479 BCE) focused on personal and governmental morality with kindness and sincerity as inspirations. He is attributed with this pithy observation: “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” We certainly need to figure out how to wage peace on the planet. Loneliness is not an arrow headed in a direction toward the target of peace. Statistics kept on mass shooters show that individuals are younger than in previous years; the median age of U.S. mass shooters from 1980-1989 was 39 but the median age since 2020 is 22 years old.

Shooters at K-12 schools and colleges have been current or former students. Many were victims of cruel teasing and bullying. What is lacking in our educational systems for this “best educated” generation?

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt teaches ethical leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. When interviewed by Krista Tippett, Haidt offered this educational recommendation: “Let’s cancel 2 years of math for all of our high school students…and put in statistics, basic economics…and introductory psychology.” In a 2022 essay in The Atlantic, he addressed the monumental role of social media upon young minds.

I am always amazed to see dependent teens holding some digital device in their hands instead of playing the old-fashioned way (i.e., using one’s hands for a myriad of independent possibilities). A recent U.S. Congressional hearing that grilled the major CEO’s of social media will not curb the time Zoomers spend on their gadgets. Zoomers are guinea pigs as the first generation to be weaned on social media and the internet.

Baby boomers — born between 1946 and 1964 (or currently the ages of 60-78) — are hitting retirement age in record numbers, although 1 in 5 individuals 65+ choose to continue working according to a Pew Research Center study. However, 2024 is slated as a record-breaking year for U.S. retirement as an average of 11,000 Americans a day will celebrate their 65th birthday.

How many of the newly retired or semi-retired will join Zoomers in spending most of their time in the digital universe? What other possibilities might exist for this highly talented generation? What opportunities are there for getting involved in some intergenerational activities that interrupt loneliness for both Zoomers and retired Boomers?

Pearls of Peace (PoP) Quiz

261. How much of your day do you hand over to a digital existence?

262. What might you do to reach out to Zoomers?