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Still Going Strong Paperback – December 20, 2005
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It's terrible to get old? Life is all downhill after fifty? That's what our youth-centered culture may think but don't be duped. Selected as a finalist for 2006 Independent Publisher Book Awards, this book can change how you think about aging, even make you feel good about getting old!
“. . . a liberating change is happening, a change as momentous as the liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s. It brings respect for older people, appreciation for maturity, and the promise of a more balanced culture.”―from the Introduction by Margaret Karmazin and Janet Amalia Weinberg.
Discover a new, positive way of looking at aging with Still Going Strong: Memoirs, Stories, and Poems About Great Older Women. This exuberant, inspiring anthology celebrates the vitality of older women and shows them having adventures, facing loss, enjoying romance, and feeling more capable and confident than ever. The 42 authors included in the collection know that life after middle age is not the diminished state dreaded by our youth-centered culture, but rather, a time of growth and fulfillment, enriched by the wisdom of experience and perspective.
Get a taste of the passion, wit, and wisdom of some of these women:
From “Why Vermont” by Elayne Clift:
“It was great not to be driven by achievement. I was learning the art of laid-back living. Spending a day writing, or reading, was heavenly and I was reminded of my freedom whenever a friend said, ‘I'd give anything to be doing that!’”
From “Gray Matters” by Marsha Dubrow:
“. . . finally [I] have decided to enjoy being a gray. It links me with a powerful sisterhood, complimenting each other on our gray badge of courage. A woman with dreadlocks resembling pillars of salt approached me on the street and said, ‘You go, girlfriend. We're gray and we're proud―and gorgeous.’ We smacked high fives.”
From “Katherine Banning: Wife, Mother, Bank Robber” by Melissa Lugo:
“Crazy, you say? Well, wait till you hit 90 and realize you still want to live, that even though you're way past menopause you want another child, and that even though your breasts make tracks in the mud, you still want a lover, and that even though your hands shake, there are still things that you didn't get to do (like going to the Olympics and bringing home the gold) things you want to do, that you will do. Then, see what you're capable of. And you'll be perfectly sane. Senility, temporary insanity, it's all bull. Old folks know exactly what they're doing. One of the good parts about being an old fart is that you have a license to be loony tunes, to live the wild way you didn't have the balls for before. At 90, you see, your dignity's gone the way of dirty diapers, and your life is heading the same way fast. You have nothing to lose except the moment.”
From “A Different Woman” by Joan Kip:
“My relationship with Seth is, I tell him, my great experiment. He calls me on every one of my tightly-held protections, and his pleasure in meeting my body is matched by my own freedom to respond. Ours is a relationship with no hidden agenda, no commitments. Our occasional evenings of uncomplicated delight are the intertwining of two desires who touch down and embrace one another, knowing they will meet again, sometime, somewhere. And while sex is not absent from our meetings, it is, rather, my compelling ache to be touched and held and to touch and hold that pulls me back each time to Seth. Like the newly-born whose being depends upon the enfolding presence of a parent, those of us who are now so old, glow more warmly when we, too, may share our tenderness.”
Still Going Strong counters demeaning stereotypes of “little old ladies” by offering positive, empowering views of women over fifty. It is a hopeful voice that speaks to any woman facing her own future.
- Print length312 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateDecember 20, 2005
- Dimensions6.46 x 0.71 x 8.35 inches
- ISBN-100789028719
- ISBN-13978-0789028716
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Janet Amalia Weinberg, PhD, MS, BA, is a retired psychologist, author, and founding member of one of the first feminist therapy collectives. Her short stories have appeared in numerous publications including Potato Eyes, Reader’s Break, and West Wind Review. At sixty, after ending a seventeen-year relationship and helping her mother through her final illness, Dr. Weinberg moved from her secluded mountain home to start a new life in Ithaca, New York.
Product details
- Publisher : Routledge; 1st edition (December 20, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 312 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0789028719
- ISBN-13 : 978-0789028716
- Item Weight : 1.28 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.46 x 0.71 x 8.35 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #9,467,332 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,344 in Gerontology Social Sciences
- #63,617 in Women's Biographies
- #64,194 in Women's Studies (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
I earned a BA from Barnard College and an MS and PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia University. I then became a founding member of one of the first groups to define and practice psychology from a feminist perspective. The group also taught classes in feminist psychology at the University of California. Later, I started a writing group, became a published writer and served on a board to establish a community youth center. Over the years I have traveled extensively and been a tutor for various educational programs. I am also an older woman with a stake in the way our culture thinks about aging. When I turned 60, I didn't want to be seen as a "dried up old hag," a "little old lady" or as any of the other terrible images our culture offers. I didn't want those stereotypes applied to any other woman either so I published a book to help create new, vibrant and positive images of older women.
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Lately, many books have been published on how to age well, on how not to age at all (buyer beware), and numerous memoirs by those in the process of aging. Weinberg has edited a collection of fifty brief memoirs, stories and poems, almost all of which are of a high caliber. Many of the mostly women authors are previously published. Here is a book to take on weekend with the gals to read aloud and share or to accompany you on a vacation or retreat or to just sit in a comfortable chair and laugh a lot and nod your head in agreement or to occasionally sigh. Two witty tales, "The Same Old Kiss" and "Ride," are written by Weinberg herself.
Weinberg has organized the material into "Strengths," "Challenges" and "Joys." I found several stories about women who had been widowed. Most of them grieved or were still grieving for beloved husbands, but all of them found a sense of freedom after so many years of being one of a couple. Certainly, they are still going strong. One of my favorite stories, "Seven Little Words," by June Rossbach Bingham Birge, suggests that seven more words be added to our vocabulary of aging: welderly, frailderly, tenergy, peopled-out, enjoyer, adequatism, and altruicide. I'll define only one, tenergy. "...even the most buoyant of welderly must face new limitations to their tenergy [combined time and energy]."
In my years of teaching, I have found that what is remembered best are the stories which illustrate points I am making. Here is a vehicle for many teachings without pedantics. A well-edited, well-written collection of tales to live by.
by Judith Helburn
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
After we reach the golden age of 50 we all have experienced our joys and sorrows, but we are old enough to know and appreciate that no matter how old we become, there is always a new tomorrow.
Aging is a privilege, and despite wrinkles & whatever infirmaties we may have, you're never too old to venture into something new and enjoyable.
This book embraces all women from varied backgrounds. We all have earned the right to be who we want to be, and to be loved by those who love us and by whom we have chosen to love.
This book is truly a celebration of life after 50 for women.
Ruth Leventhal
Age 69