Aging and Identity: Part I-The Perfect Storm Stan Goldberg March 12, 2014 Aging11 CommentsIn 2010, I wrote Top 10 Insults for Old People, a tongue-in-cheek article about an insensitive young couple I watched making fun of an older man as he shuffled down the street. Four years later, in some ways,...
Few Insights Drinking Mai Tais on the Beach Stan Goldberg January 29, 2014 Aging, Workshops and PresentationsFor more than 30 years I've been brought, kicking and screaming, to the sharp points of life. What I've learned is instead of running away, bring them closer and you'll enrich your life and ease your death
End of Life: Terminal Sedation and Politically Correct Words Stan Goldberg November 13, 2013 End of Life6 CommentsIn 2011 I wrote Shoot Me Please: The Right to Die, where I described my reactions to a patient who asked me to help him die. I recently received a comment on the article by Jarad Hughes from the Compassion and...
Free Workshop On Grief and Regaining Joy Stan Goldberg September 11, 2013 Grieving and Recovery Grief is an emotion that is pervasive. It can arrive on a passing breeze, the sounds of a familiar song, the taste of a loved one’s favorite food, or in the middle of the night when a hand reaches...
The Fear of Change: A 50 Year Perspective Stan Goldberg August 20, 2013 Aging9 CommentsChange is frightening, whether it's a person coming to terms with a terminal diagnosis or an evangelical minister learning his son is gay. Both are forced to let go of cherished beliefs for a world that has...
Now the Bad News:Living With Chronic Illness Stan Goldberg June 10, 2013 Chronic illness18 CommentsI was asked to join Thich Nhat Hanh, Jane Goodall, Norman Fischer, and other writers I have long admired in contributing to Shambhala Sun’s July 2013 special edition on the body. In my article, I relive...
Caregiving: Why Change is Difficult Stan Goldberg May 18, 2013 Caregiving10 Comments(An Excerpt from Leaning Into Sharp Points). Change is analogous to a large boulder balanced on a precipice. It looks like it could tumble off the cliff if just a little pressure were applied. But despite your...
The Melody of Our Lives: A Lesson in Grieving Stan Goldberg March 31, 2013 Grieving and Recovery18 CommentsChoosing the appropriate instrument to stop grieving When I attended a workshop on the Native American flute (NAF), I didn't realize that the lesson I would receive was one not only applicable to music but...
The Pope, Aging, and Me Stan Goldberg February 19, 2013 Aging12 CommentsMy Catholic friends are apprehensive about Pope Benedict’s resignation. Who will be the new Pope? Will he pull the church more to the right or left? Will the new Pope become more forceful in addressing the...
Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work: And How to Change It Stan Goldberg January 1, 2013 Aging7 CommentsI look at my aging body and resolve to get in shape, lose weight, eat better, listen without judging, and practice my flute more often. They are the same resolutions I made last year, the year before, and...
Why We Grieve: Sandy Hook and Other Deaths Stan Goldberg December 15, 2012 Grieving and Recovery16 CommentsOn news shows and press conferences about the Sandy Hook Elementary School, I repeatedly heard things such as ----Our hearts go out to the families and survivors. ----Pray for them. ----Although we...
Why “Truth” is Always Relative: A Lesson on Understanding Stan Goldberg November 28, 2012 Aging, Grieving and Recovery, Life16 CommentsWe move in a world created by our history and often pretend the past and present aren’t connected. A partner becomes annoyed at what we do or say, and we can’t accept the notion that their annoyance is our...
Seeing Life Through Our Personal History: It’s a Gray World Stan Goldberg October 15, 2012 Aging, Grieving and Recovery, Life16 CommentsMost of us believe the world should be viewed as we see it. And when there is a discrepancy between the right way—ours—and the wrong way, we are, in the words of Captain Louis Renault in Casablanca,...
Understanding Aging: We’re Not Children Stan Goldberg July 18, 2012 Aging22 CommentsThe good news is we are living longer. The bad news is it’s taking us longer to die. Soygul Rinpoche, the Tibetan monk and philosopher said that “Death is no big deal. You breathe in, you breathe out, and then you don’t breathe in anymore.”
The Psychology of Pain: It’s Not What You Think Stan Goldberg May 30, 2012 Chronic illness24 CommentsWhat would you do if you learned from this moment until you died you would be in pain? Not something mild like an occasional headache, but something that overwhelms every one of your thoughts, feelings, and...
When They Come For You: Equal Rights Stan Goldberg May 12, 2012 Grieving and Recovery24 CommentsMore than 15 years ago I was asked to sit on a contentious committee at San Francisco State University that was given the task of recommending curricular changes that would sensitize students to cultural...
When You Can’t Let Go Stan Goldberg April 25, 2012 Grieving and Recovery24 CommentsWhenever I hear about the importance of letting go of the past, I think about a conversation I had with my mother more than thirty years ago. She emigrated to the United States from Poland when she was six...
Want Enlightenment? Think Less, Do more Stan Goldberg March 30, 2012 Grieving and Recovery, Life12 CommentsWhen I gave a workshop on change at a well-known retreat center, one participant told me that this was the tenth week-long workshop he attended in the past five years. “Why so many?” I...
Alzheimer’s: Awareness Isn’t Enough Stan Goldberg March 22, 2012 Alzheimer’s/dementia14 Comments“If we just could increase awareness,” some of my friends with Alzheimer’s say, “funding would rise and the illness could be eventually controlled or eliminated.” I wish it was that...
Feeling like a 1960 Edsel?-You’re Just Aging Stan Goldberg March 1, 2012 Aging14 CommentsWhen I was in college I would take whatever I was driving and offer it and $50 to a used car dealer for anything that ran on his lot with a current inspection sticker. Within the first few weeks, something...