speak informally; chat. This word came into English from Yiddish. Example: "Sarah loves to kibitz with her friends."
Former president Jimmy Carter reflects on aging, blending memoir, anecdote, political savvy, and practical advice, to truly illuminate the rich promises of growing older. In this book he shares the knowledge and pleasures that age have brought him. "As we've grown older, the results have been surprisingly good," he says of the new experiences that come to us with age. He delves into the issues of planning for retirement, undertaking new diet and exercise regimens, coping with age prejudice, and (on a more intimate level) he paints a glowing portrait of his happy marriage to Rosalynn. The book celebrates both the blessings that come to us as we grow older and the blessings older people can bestow upon others.
"I don't usually get excited about food preparation, maybe because it too often seems like a lot of work to make a meal for one. I do, however, like to experiment with salads. My process is to toss in whatever I have on hand that sounds good to me at the moment. It could be leftovers, like this one. On Thursday, I had a hard-boiled egg from breakfast, a tomato, and some leftover asparagus from a recent meal. So I cut up those together in a bowl. After taking this photo, I added Roasted Onion Parmesan Dressing and called it a salad."
home·bod·y /ˈhōmˌbädē / noun = Informal (North American) = a person who likes to stay at home. Example: "Since she's gotten older, Bonnie is definitely even more of a homebody."
syn·chro·nic·i·ty /ˌsiNGkrəˈnisədē / noun = the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related, but have no discernible causal connection. Example: "It's synchronicity when I run across an illustration with waves from a famous piece of art just as I'm writing about that artwork."
"The paradox of play is this: we engage in whimsy not because life is easy, but because life is difficult" (p. 9)."...the more advanced the species, the more it plays" (p. 11)."Playfulness is essential to human flourishing" (p. 12)."Play is anything that brings us joy and connection" (p. 13).
"...sometimes acting how we want to feel can help us get there..." (p. 46).
"Our world is filled with useless activities that can fill us with absolute delight. And many of them are so very simple. Take a breath, take a pause, take a taste. Smell the herbs. Look into the eyes of the friend. Snuggle the baby. Watch the snow fall. Each of these things serves no grand purpose. But each one changes us, incrementally transforming overly serious minds into open ones and stubborn hearts into joy-filled ones" (p. 115).
Quindlen writes about a blind woman with a guide dog and how she manages to get around in their shared NYC neighborhood, when it's hard enough for those of us who can see what's coming at us. There was a taped-off area with the tape high enough for the dog to easily go under it, and the dog did go under it. But the woman hit the tape and stopped. Quindlen explained to the woman about the mistake the dog had made and offered her arm, which the woman took as they went onto the street around the taped area. For Quindlen, it was "nothing but an interior anecdote, passing eventually, as these things do, into memory. But written down, it lives. It's there, it's real. That's the important thing. That's why we write things down, to give them life" (pp. 169-172).
"Writing can make memory concrete, and memory is such a hard thing to hold on to, like a Jell-O mold, all wiggly but with solid bits embedded clearly" (p. 184).
"[W]hen she first began, Anne Frank wasn't writing a book. She was talking to herself. And she was talking to herself in a way that any of us can do too. She was finding solace in writing her life, her thoughts and feelings, day after day. Words to live by."
The book's theme is that we need to leave a legacy of our life by writing about it. When we write we not only look, we see; we not only react, but reflect. Writing gives us something to hold onto in a changing world. Writing connects us to ourselves and to those we cherish. Drawing on her personal experiences not just as a writer but as a mother and daughter, Quindlen makes the case that recording our daily lives in writing is essential.
