Over-50

Shame on Me: What I Should Have Learned in 2014

Back in 2015, The Atlantic nailed it in how it threw shade on 12-step program Alcoholics Anonymous.

The article, now a classic in the push-back against that traditional mode of substance-abuse treatment, points out that the program offers fellowship.

Members are welcoming.

Members are accepting.

Members go the distance to be helpful.

Yes, there is an extreme sense of belonging. 

Offering that appeals to what is probably so primitive in human natures: the longing to be part of.

The same dynamics seem to operate as a pull force in fundamentalist religion.

Sure, there is also the certainty provided by unambiguous beliefs. That creates a zone of mental safety. Hold that abortion is wrong and you will sleep soundly at night. Tough to turn that down.

As I found out in my six weeks participating in an evangelical church, the magic of total euphoria can be conjured up by simply being embraced fully by the minister and the congregation. A very seductive form of voodoo.

Not since I had become a passionate member of a 12-step program in 1981 had I experienced such an uplifting of my spirit. 

They let me in. They said I could remain in the magic circle as long as I stuck with the rules.

But, somehow, my background in critical reasoning shook me into admitting, no, maybe I didn't really belong. Not there. And, I even accepted: maybe not anywhere.

Increasingly, it's difficult to really belong. Those with more followers, likes, shares, and comments on social networks can doom us to the assumption that, no, we aren't welcome there. We are deluding ourselves that we are a part of. Eventually, there will be the message, blunt or wrapped in the velvet glove of civility, that we should exit. Leave the cool kids to enjoy each other, without us. 

No, the sandboxes of the digital era aren't really welcoming. 

Here is my takeaway, at least for now: As long as we fail to belong to ourselves - that is, treasure our little dance on planet earth for what it is - we are vulnerable to the machinations of institutions and individuals promising fellowship. 

Do I finally got it that self-love is the ultimate play-out of belonging? That is, that we belong to ourselves?

I don't know.

Over and over again I have been through the wringer on that one. Back in 2014, I had positioned and packaged myself to be the ultimate victim of the longing to belong syndrome. Here is that story. Unfortunately, the lessons had not been learned back then. 

My search for an emotional, social, and spiritual home had continued.

Perhaps one perk of having been a liberal arts student should have been being immersed in the history of ideas. Over and over again there had been evidence of how alone mankind is. Being separate is the reality. That's a central theme in Virginia Woolf's "To the Lighthouse." 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Papa Don't Preach

She shouldn't have been walking alone near sundown in Manhattan.

Not a city girl, she shouldn't have enrolled in a college in an urban area.

She shouldn't have had such open body language, which invites attack.

Those are among The Lessons To Be Learned that some who love platitudes are likely mouthing off. 

Beyond those cliches is the reality that safety is no where.

Sure, there are relative degrees of that. There is the age-old advice of females never being alone in public places in cities. But, come on, my mother and younger sister were together outside their apartment in the New York Metro area and violently mugged. 

Safety is an abstraction, put together by those who make their living providing the illusion of no-risk to human beings who don't get it that life on planet earth is inherently dangerous.

That had been from the get-go.

In "Genesis," the brother Cain eaten up by jealousy offed his brother Abel.

Caveman could easily be murdered on the way home from hunting by another cave dweller or a bear who scored dinner.

English majors, in the days when those existed, found in the world view of William Shakespeare great darkness about what human beings do to each other.

Speed up time travel to 2019 and cars/planes/trains, taking selfies in high places, enraged/greedy lovers ("Dateline" made its brandname out of that), and domestic terrorists all can easily snuff out lives. 

In addition, there are what have been called The Inner Terrorists. Those are the intrusive thoughts which can propel human beings toward suicide.

Finally, it's out there how little science understands about that journey from hope to despair and then to taking one's own life.

The supposed classic on that "Night Falls Fast" by Johns Hopkins professor Kay Jamison raises so many questions. There are really no answers.

In the high-pressure legal sector, there had been lots of pontificating about what "killed" Sidley Austin partner Gabriel MacConaill. He had taken his own life. 

But, any lawyer with a scientific background would declare: Those cause-effect relationships being trotted out represent mere speculation. No one was in MacConaill's head when he decided to shoot himself or the months before that fatal act.

Come on, we don't know how to make ourselves safe from those inner terrorists, either. If we did, the global campaigns to prevent suicide would be more successful. 

A smart-ass could smirk: No one is going to get out of "all this" (i.e. life) alive. But that disrespect for conventional wisdom is about the only accurate observation regarding being able to keep alive a bit longer on planet earth.

The promise of safety should be made against the law. When iGens arrive at college, that laundry list of safety measures should contain a disclaimer that none of that is knife-proof, bullet-proof, or preventive of any versions of self-destruction. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Those Over-50 & AI - Are We Being Knocked Out of Box (or, worse, not even allowed near it)?

By now, it's fairly well known that AI, that is, artificial intelligence, is inherently biased.

After all, humans create the algorithms for AI and those humans use data which contain some or maybe a lot of bias. That's just the way it is.

One example of that had been the racial bias found in healthcare algorithms. U.S. senators such as Cory Booker are looking into those. 

So, the world should be appropriately skeptical of the use of AI in recruiting. After all, so much is at stake in the hiring process, both for the individual and for the organization.

Recode published a major article on the advantages of AI in recruiting as well as the concerns of those in government, ranging from Congress and state legislatures to the EEOC, about what is called "automated decision making decisions." That article is by Rebecca Heilweil. 

Those systems have become essentially end-to-end.

At the front end, they can determine where a help-wanted ad is placed. Already that has become controversial. It had been discovered that those placed on Facebook reflected bias against women and the aging. 

Next the algorithms can be used to choose the resumes which should be reviewed first - and those simply tossed.

Often now, the next step is an AI video interview in which factors ranging from language to facial expressions are assessed. Only at the very last phase of the recruiting process might there be an in-person interview. 

Along the way there might be AI personality assessment tilted toward predicting if this kind of professional will succeed at the organization, how long with that employee stay, and is he or she capable of being promoted. 

The criteria for those decisions usually have been derived from the databases at the organization. That is, historic information is being used to make current decisions. Of course, that immediately raises a red flag since everything keeps changing. 

According to LinkedIn, 67% of those in the recruiting loop find AI helpful. For any job opening thousands of resumes might come in. AI speeds up sorting through the first cut. In itself, that saves money. 

So, yes, this is an efficiency payoff front the get-go. But, some object that the sorting mechanisms could be unfairly knocking out of the box atypical applicants. 

Most of the major concerns about AI fall into three categories:

• Bias. It was found that an AI recruiting tool developed by Amazon (but not used) favored males over females. That was primarily because it had been developed from past employment data at Amazon. That had been compiled when the majority of employees were male.  
• Lack of transparency. Frequently the applicant being interviewed has not been informed that the process is using a video system, what is being assessed, and how will it be used. No consent might have been given. 
• No guarantee of accuracy. After all, hiring is a social process. AI, as it is now constituted, might not pick up nuance. 

Already, in Congress there has been introduced the Algorithm Accountability Act. There is a call for the FTC to review what's going on in the kinds of evaluations of applicants that are being made via video platforms such as HireVue's. 

The EEOC has received two complaints about facial analysis. 

In Illinois, soon to go into effect is the Artificial Intelligence Interview Act. Before the video is clicked on, there must be explicit notification of the process, consent given, and explanation about what is being focused on, evaluated, and interpreted. 

All of this is linked to the guidance established in 1978 by the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Section Procedures.  That has been the federal government's way to help organizations not have selection factors which negatively impact minority groups.

Among those protected groups is the older worker. Clearly, one has to ask: Can't the very existence of a video interview early in the process knock the over-50 job hunter out of the box? 

Full Disclosure: Over-50, I avoid all hiring processes for contract assignments and new client accounts which involve video. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

How The Fat Girl Saved Her Life (and didn't develop diabetes)

Diabetes is a nasty disease.

According to the American Diabetes Association, 9.4% of the U.S. population has it. That percentage will probably increase. 

In 2014, I was heading that way. Quickly.

Actually, the medical doctor's eyes popped when he glanced at the lab results. "You are on the border of diabetes," he said, sternly. And he added that the other numbers didn't look too hot either.

What flashed through my mind was the old neighborhood in Jersey City, New Jersey. There, a woman had lost both legs to diabetes.

Also, my sister Anne Murga-Ring had specialized in diabetes treatment at the former Christ Hospital in Jersey City. That included providing lots of education about that condition. I knew. 

I did something about this. Several somethings.

This wasn't my first rodeo in suffering the consequences of indulgent eating habits.

Some might recall there had been a time when it was a mortal sin, some considered unforgiveable, for a female to be overweight. I had been such a sinner.

"No one will marry you," the they warned.

At Seton Hill College, Greensburg, Pennsylvania, it seemed to always be about my weight.

In my first corporate job - Gulf Oil - it was also about my weight. But less directly since that kind of issue was against the law.

When my father was dying, relatives standing by the deathbed did note, "You lost weight." 

Finally in 2014, I made the decision to eat right and stay eating right. I researched pre-diabetic conditions. For almost six years I have been on a low-carb, low-fat eating plan. Hard at first, yes. It does affect mood stability, at first. But just standard living now.

Another something was relocating from the careerist Northeast Corridor. I packed up the dog and we headed across country to Tucson, Arizona. There, no one gave a damn there about careers. If you paid your rent and didn't vomit drunk in the courtyard on Saturday night, you were okay in their book. I began to like myself. It took time but that mutated to the ability to love myself. 

Stress also was reduced by the lower cost of living. My rent (I had sold my house in the 2004 real estate boom) was about a half what it had been in Connecticut. So was the car insurance. 

The third something was movin' that body. I make a religion of working out. Eventually, I donated the cars to Kars4Kids. I now live in Ohio where you can walk everywhere. Where I can't walk I use my trike (adult tricycle). According to those calculations, one Sunday I rode off 802 calories. 

The fourth was meditation. Nothing too sophisticated. I learned the ropes at a Buddhist temple, then incorporated the practice into my daily ritual at home.

Yesterday, the doctor's office said all my numbers, including for glucose, were within normal range.

Yes, it is possible to get well and stay well. There was no tongue-lashing about my weight. It wasn't bad for "someone my age." No longer do I shop for clothes in the plus-size stores. 

I have no idea what other medical conditions will hunt me down. What I do know is that some health tragedies are avoidable. As for the trauma left over from being a fat girl, that has a long half life. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Beyond BigPharma - Finding Our Healthcare Solutions on Our Own

Ohio is the state in which almost everyone knows someone who has overdosed during the opioid epidemic.

Some of those addicted to opioids died.

Some are still attempting to score the pain killers on the street.

And some are struggling in rehab, usually with multiple stays. 

But few, if any of them, are obtaining their supply of opioids from a medical doctor in this state. At least, not without a hassle. 

On Wednesday, I will be a new patient at a primary care medical office in Toledo, Ohio. The first page of the forms I have to fill out before my intake visit reads:

"Please be aware this office does not prescribe pain medication. You will be referred to Pain Management for those medications."

Fortunately, right now pain is not one of my healthcare challenges.

But insomnia had been in Fall 2016 when I relocated to OH from the wild west of the southwest USA, right on the border of Nogales, Mexico.

The primary care medical center in Youngstown, OH denied my request for prescription sleeping pills. Patiently, the medical doctor who was doing a residency explained rituals I should do as the day turned to night to avoid sleeplessness.

Of course, those didn't work. That most recent bout of severe insomnia wasn't my first rodeo. I could teach a course at Harvard Medical School on sleep disorders. 

Funny, what did work I discovered by accident.

Along with all my living room furniture, I had donated my bed to a neighbor when I was relocating in Fall 2019 from Youngstown to Toledo. It wasn't cost effective to move all that.

That night I set up things so that I could sleep comfortably on the floor.

There I fell right to sleep and stayed asleep.

From my college freshman Scientific Method course I connected the dots: After being plagued with insomnia since age 11, I had developed a phobia about sleeping in a bed. As soon as I headed toward the bed I tensed up. 

The floor wasn't associated with a brutal history of not sleeping.

You bet, I am still on the floor every night.

Only one of those nights has been a toss-and-turn.

See, I was in high angst about a Fintech assignment for a new client.

So, I got off the floor, started the assignment, finished it, and at 2 P.M. regrouped on the floor for the "night."

As the research documents, with regular sleep for almost three months I have lost weight. My rings are loose. I am bringing many of my outfits to the bin for the needy. Those plagued with not sleeping confuse fatigue with hunger. 

Takeaway: So many of the answers to what is ruining our health are within us. What we have to do is apply the fundamentals of the scientific method to unlock that insight. Maybe some of that is voodoo, that is the belief X or Y will be effective.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

Remember How High School Guidance Counselors Steered Us into Knowledge Work - SmirkSmirk

Artificial intelligence isn't only threatening those repetitive tasks at the low end of the labor food chain. The classic example is telemarketing. Probably bots have already been interrupting your lunch, dinner, and breakfast.

In the Economics Department at Stanford University Michael Webb researched patents being developed. That is, they are not providing current technology. He matched them against the functional keywords in job descriptions of what we think of as knowledge workers. 

But if those patents generate a commercial use, that application could wipe out analytical/solution-creating type jobs at the top of the labor food chain - and which pay well. They include market researcher, chemical engineer, and physicist. The study, which you can read here, has been published by the Brookings Institution.

Of course, this may not happen.

But it also may. If the latter plays out, that means that high-level cognitive processing does not insulate a human job function from being performed by artificial intelligence.

Sure, there will always be a need to a handful of experts in, say, chemical engineering, to oversee inputting the variables into the artificial intelligence programming. They will also be required to monitor and measure the performance of applications in the actual work settings. But, essentially, that job category could slip away as journalism has. 

In the legal sector, where training to be a lawyer entails three expensive years of education, artificial intelligence is already being applied to functions ranging from document review during discovery to contract review. Here are more details from Forbes. 

As clients, customers, strategic partners, and investors become more aware of artificial intelligence realities and possibilities they could demand those be considered for inclusion in projects. When, for instance, law firms pitch for an account they may have to front load that with how they will be using artificial intelligence. 

Is ghostwriting also on the chopping block? Of course. The personality traits, language preferences, cognitive habits, and content expertise of professionals can also be coded into artificial intelligence. There could be an algorithm labeled "Clarence Miller, Thought Leader on Influence of the Baptist Church in Political Public Speaking."

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Relax, It's Okay We Don't Have a Lot of Friends

Finally, those without a ton of friends on social networks can smirk.

The University of Leeds researchers found that the health benefits from friendship isn't a numbers game, Study Finds reports. Rather it's the quality of the friendships. Those friendships may be few but they supply what both parties need. 

For example, the usual situation in aging is that there are fewer friends. That's just the way it is.

But the Leeds researchers observed that those in that age category tend to interact with their friends in person. That enhances the quality of the relationship.

The question now is: With so many metrics on social networks tracking the number of followers and making that public, are people being encouraged to increase the total instead of investing themselves in a handful of quality relationships?

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

U.S. Legal System - The Dementia Threat

To some, Houston, Texas First Court of Appeals Justice Laura Higley seemed fine.

As played out on the popular network television show "Boston Legal" seasoned members of the legal profession such as Denny Crane can conceal their cognitive decline. But, eventually the various forms of dementia take over. 

It had been Justice Higley's two sons who outed her condition. She resigned.

According to Texas Lawyer, her situation is not an aberration. In that state 17% of the lawyers are 65 years or older. In addition, more lawyers have no plan to retire. They enjoy the work. If they are on their second marriage there might be offspring to put through college. And they might have noticed that the retired become invisible. The end of a job usually means the end of a whole identity.

Overall in the general population, about one in six females and one in 10 males will suffer memory loss significant enough to impair their professional performance and ability to function in daily life. 

The bar association in TX is looking into this and it encourages members to have a confidential evaluation. Many other state bars are also aware of the high cost - on many levels - of allowing impaired members of the profession to continue to practice law. 

But, having a judge or lawyer give up the title and job tends not to be easy. And it could be politically dangerous. On another popular network television show "Blue Bloods," prosecutor Erin Reagan risks her career putting pressure on a judge, who is sliding into senility, to retire. The episode does have a happy ending.

With dementia becoming common in the legal sector, others could also get caught in that kind of scary situation. They might not land on their feet as had Reagan.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

A Girl (at least in her peddle-power) & Her Trike

It was bravado. But, part of me believed it at the time I purchased the trike (adult tricycle) at Wersell Bike Shop, Toledo, Ohio. 

I had to believe that three-wheel contraption could really get me, an over-50, everyplace I wanted to go.

So, with great confidence I informed the salesperson Brett Gibson I was going to use the trike to peddle my way to the Toledo Museum of Art. That was about six weeks ago.

Here's my story. When I still had a car I had become a member of the Museum and got an emotional/spiritual lift weekly when I roamed the exhibits, nursed one affordable coffee in the cafe, and gazed out at the garden. Afternoons of heaven.

The car I had donated to Kars4Kids.

See, I couldn't shake the trauma of an accident in Michigan at the end of August 2019.

The sound of the crash and the look in my dog's eyes when the accident happened, they dominated my consciousness.

In addition, State Farm, although it was my first accident and no one was hurt, more than doubled my insurance. After that, I yanked my homeowner's insurance and placed it with another insurance company. It also covers the trike for the replacement value.

Peddle by peddle, I worked up to making it to the Museum. First it was the 40 minute bike ride to my support group meeting on Sylvania Avenue. Within a week I got that down to 30 minutes. Obviously, I was making progress. I also connected the dots on wearing layers. It was an experience of total cool having a backpack. 

Then last week there was the 90 minute peddling to the main shopping district and back. According to calorie calculators, that has lightened my calorie count for that afternoon by 805. On Facebook I asked my friends if I came across as thinner.

I made it my business to study city maps. Somehow I identified a shortcut from Lewis Avenue to Monroe Street. I took it, but didn't trust my directional instincts. 

For once, they were on the money. I arrived at the Museum parking lot. My member sticker was on the bike. That would allow me to park w/o the $8 fee.

Then, a wrench in the works.

"No bikes in the lot." That's what the attendant said.

My heart sank to the crusty envelope encasing planet earth.

Then, the attendant indicated there was a bike rack in front of the museum.

I backed out my trike (manually) and headed there.

There was a new exhibit on light and shadow. Because I was a member I didn't have to pony up the $12 bucks for a ticket.

Then I studied Andrew Wyeth's "The Hunter."

It reinforced for me the importance of angle in creative projects. Wyeth approached the subject from on high in a Sycamore tree. The bark was peeling off. Since it was fall there were few leaves. That renewed my determination to go for out of the box angles in my ghostwriting, even if clients seemed to want (the issue is always: do they really want) platitudes. 

"The Hunter" stuck with me. I needed to think more about Wyeth's technique.

So, I took the long long way home. One stop was at an apartment complex closer to the action of downtown. Should I move?

The issue became: Maybe I needed as much peddling distance between me and what my soul craved. During the six weeks of triking the clinical depression I had struggled with since age 11 had gone into remission. 

Reflection: Harvard Medical School might do a global experiment on triking and putting a dent in the worldwide epidemic of depression. Instead of giving the world a Coca-Cola, give 'em trikes. 

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.

One More Argument Against Retiring (especially early)

FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) is controversial.

The most common problem brought up is the tendency to run out of money. After all, those ducking out of the workforce earlier than 66 can wind up living beyond 100. 

But, now there is another reason why employees and the self-employed might not do a FIRE.

That's the recent study in China by Plamen Nikolov of Binghampton University in New York. Of the Chinese retirees and the non-retired analyzed, the research team found that the former did 20% worse on memory tests.

They conclude that is a result of the combination of not having the intellectual stimulation of work and experiencing less social interaction. Here are more details from the Daily Mail.

Yes, there's a hunch that not retiring can hold off dementia. Staying put in working requires remembering a million little (and big) things. 

Also, remaining employed prevents the tendency for the aging to become invisible, that is pushed into social irrelevance.

This is capitalism. Identity is associated with productivity. When not employed or self-employed the identity slips away, usually quickly.

It should be no surprise that so many superplayers such as David Boies in law and film-maker/actor Clint Eastwood are still out there hustling. They seem smart enough to recognize the perils of hanging it up. Now, it's confirmed, at least in China, that the fallout could include the slide into dementia.

Smart global ghostwriting, with social networking know-know. Emergencies welcome. Complimentary consultation (pressure-free) janegenova374@gmail.com.