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Does Ai Mix with Poetry? My Interview with Tom Solheim on his AI-generated poem about Virginia Woolf’s death.
Tom and I have been good friends since law school at the University of Wisconsin. He edited the Law Review and built a successful law firm in Madison. I highly respect his judgement and intellect and share his curiosity.
I would have thought that Tom agreed with my skepticism about any incursion by generative AI into the creative process. So, Tom’s ChatGPT-created poem exploring the Virginia Woolf’s last thoughts before she committed suicide surprised me. H agreed to an interview. His prompt to ChatGPT, the AI-gen generated poem, and our Q and A follow
.
The Prompt:
. Compose a poem. of 40-80 lines of free verse, expressing the thoughts that went through the mind of Virginia Woolf during the 30 minutes or so before she died, as she went to the edge of a pond, filled her pockets with stones, and walked out into deep water. Her thoughts might include her formation of an intention, observations, fears, perceptions of other emotions, sensory perceptions, planning, memories, directions to herself, questions, or other thoughts.
The Poem:
Beneath the Surface: Virginia Woolf
The world grows quiet,
a fragile hush,
the river a glassy heart,
reflecting clouds like thoughts—
so heavy, so scattered,
as I stand at the edge,
a realm between longing and release.
The stone I take,
a fragment of me,
cold, smooth,
nestled in my pocket,
its weight a whispered promise,
an echo of yesterday,
or was it a dream?
Am I seen by the trees,
their limbs outstretched,
guardians of this stillness?
Do they sense the tremor,
the dance of my heart
as it teeters on the brink
of something profound,
something final?
Memory floods,
the laughter of Leonard,
his gentle eyes,
the joy of words spilling
onto the page,
but shadows creep in,
a darkness that thickens
like fog rolling in from the sea.
What is it to be alive
when each breath feels heavy,
a burden wrapped in silk,
the ache of creation
clashing with the weight
of expectation,
a pendulum swinging
between brilliance and despair?
I think of the tides,
the pull of the ocean,
the way it calls to me,
a lover from afar,
its depths beckoning,
a sanctuary for all
that feels too much to bear.
In these last moments,
questions swirl like leaves—
Will they understand?
Will my words linger,
haunting the air like ghosts,
whispering secrets to the wind?
Or will they fade,
lost in the folds of time?
Here, the water shimmers,
a silken veil,
a promise of stillness,
and I feel the stone,
a testament
to the weight of my thoughts,
my fears, my hopes,
sinking deeper,
drawing me closer.
Am I a ship adrift,
lost in a storm of my own making,
or a bird longing to land,
to find peace in silence,
to dissolve into the embrace
of the liquid depths,
where pain transforms
into something ineffable,
something whole?
The sky darkens,
and I stand at the precipice,
between what was and what may be,
a tapestry of life
woven with threads of sorrow,
with the light of fleeting joy
flickering like candle flames,
fragile and beautiful.
What if this choice,
this descent,
is not an end,
but a beginning,
a shedding of skin,
a turning toward the unknown,
the unseen waters
that cradle my fears,
my fractured dreams?
And so, I breathe,
each inhale a prayer,
each exhale a release,
the world narrowing,
the river inviting,
and with each step,
I surrender,
a final dance with the deep.
What will they say of me?
Will they find me in the pages,
in the whispers of the wind,
or will I drift,
a shadow beneath the surface,
where silence reigns
and the stone rests with others,
each one a part of the whole,
each one a piece of my soul,
returning home.
This is unabridged except for Tom’s few minor changes: ” I edited only a little. Changing from plural, stones, to one stone. A couple other minor changes. The title came from ChatGPT, except I added the name, to make it more explicit.”
The Interview
Dan:
What inspired you to start this project?
Tom:
This project arose from a discussion about use of artificial intelligence for the production of poetry, initiated by my friend Dan Bell before this interview.
I am not a poet or artist of any kind, so this is done naively and without any urge to create. I like poetry but am an amateur, usually reading a curated poem every day. Curiosity about her thoughts is the motivation.
Dan
Why did you use AI?
Tom
I suspected that artificial intelligence particularly ChatGPT, would likely produce something that sounded and looked like poetry but would be fairly light on accurately or convincingly conveying thoughts and feelings. Lately I had also been thinking about Virginia Woolf’s end of life. Combining these thoughts, I wondered how effective ChatGPT would be at a poem that conveyed some of her last thoughts, given a rather detailed prompt.
Dan
Hoe did you react to the poem?
Tom
My initial reaction when the poem first appeared was awe, a feeling that I was getting a little peek into another mind. The resulting poem strikes me as possible true thoughts.
Dan:
Were you concerned that used lines from other poems?
Tom:
Some lines could easily have been copied from poems about death or Virgina Woolf. Others have a feel of some originality, not words that many persons might say. I did Google searches on a couple of the lines that seemed unique and didn’t get any hits showing they were part of existing poems.
Dan:
How did this poem affect you:
Tom:
I am also satisfied, that by thinking hard about a prompt, and effectively using artificial intelligence, I have expanded my consciousness a little bit. This could be classified as creative.
Last month philanthropist Melinda Gates laid a $20 million opportunity to improve boys and men's health on the table. Her grant went to Richard Reeves, President of the American Institute for Boys and Men(AIBM). Similar grants to one other health organization for males and 10 women's and families’ health organizations. Reeves will use these funds to support programs designed to improve health care for boys and men.
Reeves made a strong case for this help in his recent book Of Boys and Men. He documented the problems and offered good solutions to these problems for boys and younger men. However, for older men, he stated the problems, but offered no solutions. Older men have different mental and physical health needs than boys and younger men making it crucial that they have advocates at the table when Reeves distributes these funds .
While life may be fine for many of us, too many of our brothers live contemplating suicide under the shadow of a sense of worthlessness, depression, loneliness, alcohol and drug addiction, and other physical and mental health issues. These problems will increase if the population of men over 65 increases as projected.
Here are examples of innovative programs that could improve mental and physical health of older men and assist with reestablishing ties to their children and families, always working with local organizations, groups, and establishments:
· Developing a low-price effective transportation system older men and women
· Organizing local meet and greets featuring activities men enjoy such as playing cards, watching a sporting event. golf outings, fishing trips, Bocce Ball, or dinner with their wife or a friend.
· Building local physical health, physical and mental health clinics, treating boys and men.
· Establishing local auxiliary groups to assist agencies and organizations at the time of a natural disaster such as a hurricane.
· Assisting with programs that reunite fathers and grandfathers with their sons, daughters, grandsons, and granddaughters.
An ambitious agenda for sure.
Organizations that work with older men such as U.S. Men’s Sheds Association, the Men’s Health Network, and Project Unlonely may want to be at the table to present projects that deserve funding.
I am confident that Ms. Gates wants Mr. Reeves to spend a fair portion of her money to help older men.
Stay tuned for further developments.
Dan
NEVER QUIT ON YOURSELF
In 1959, Lieutenant Coronel William H. Rankin, a Marine pilot, ejected after his jet lost power at an elevation of more than 45,000 feet while flying over a thunderstorm. He lived to tell the most amazing and inspirational first-person story that I have ever heard.
IT IS A MUST READ. It’s message: never quit on yourself.
Here is the link to the reprint.
https://loa-shared.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/static/pdf/Rankin_Man_Thunder.pdf
Here are the proper credits for the reprint.
The Library of America • Story of the Week Reprinted from Into the Blue: American Writers on Aviation and Spaceflight (The Library of America, 2011), pages 382-98. Copyright © 2011 Literary Classics of the U.S., Inc. From The Man Who Rode the Thunder (1960), pp. 150–63, 170–80. Copyright © 1960 by William Rankin. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved
Tammy Sutherland Working Shoulder-to-Should with Men
Mission Impossible - Three Men’s Shed’s organized and running in one year! Is she a Wonder Woman or merely remarkable? I recently interviewed Tammy Sutherland who, after her fifth child flew the nest, had an identity crisis. She solved the crisis by organizing Men's Sheds in three small North Carolina towns within the last year, increasing the total number of Men’s Sheds in the U.S. from 30 to 33 in 12 states.
Men's Shed’s started in the 1990s in Australia and has grown to about 3,000 Sheds in 12 countries. This quote from the Australian Men’s Shed’s Association website explains the Shed’s’ purpose:
Relationship breakdown, retrenchment or early retirement from a job, loss of children following divorce, physical or mental illness are just some of the problems that men may find difficult to deal with on their own. Good health is based on many factors including feeling good about yourself, being productive, contributing to your community, connecting with friends and maintaining an active body and mind. Becoming a member of a Men’s Shed provides a safe and busy environment where men can find many of these things in an atmosphere of old-fashioned mateship. And, importantly, there is no pressure.
Dan: Tell us about yourself and how you came to do this.
Tammy: We moved around quite a bit with my husband's job. I raised five kids. When the youngest left home in 2018, I went through an identity crisis period. It was like “oh my gosh now what?” Then came the pandemic and we had just moved to Pennsylvania. My husband's working from home and he's on conference calls all day long. And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. It's time for me to go back to school and get my bachelor's degree. I already had an Associate's, but I didn't have my bachelor's. So I headed back to school online. And during last year's last spring summer session, I did a class where I needed to create a workshop and present it somewhere. My major is Marriage and Family Studies, and I knew that I really wanted to address the older population because of my experience of going through an identity crisis after my life conditions changed. And so I created a workshop called Finding Purpose Beyond 60: Navigating Life Changes and presented it at the Brunswick Senior Center here in Leland. It was well received and then when I was looking forward to the next semester and needing an internship, I asked if I would be able to do an internship with them. Because I've always liked the older population and I'm liking it more and more now that I'm there personally. I ended up working with Yvette Goslin, who is the Chief Operations Officer for Brunswick Senior Resources. She's the one who told me to get the Men's Shed’s started.
Dan: Why do you think Men’s Sheds are so valuable?
Tammy: Older men have a high suicide rate and die six or seven years younger than women. They have health needs and a lack of attention to their health needs and their mental health needs. That's the strength of an organization like the Men’s Shed’s. They're able to support and encourage each other and it's a place for men to go and stay involved in life. Their motto is “Shoulder to Shoulder.”
This is not a program where a senior center sets planned activities for men. No. The senior care center can sponsor it, but it's the men deciding what they want to do. And the men making it happen. The reason they get up every morning is to make choices, and the decisions we make in our own lives are more important than just participating in something somebody else has planned and organized and tells us what to do.
Dan: How did you begin this project?
Tammy: I spent time studying and getting very familiar with what the Men’s Shed’s is because I had never heard of it. I then became passionate. Our goal was to start a Shed at each of the five towns where there was a senior center.
Dan: How did you bring men together who had a common interest?
Tammy: Each Men’s Shed can focus on whatever interest is expressed by the men in that area. Overall, woodworking seems to be the most popular.
In Supply, the Men’s Shed began with a man with an interest in model trains who wanted to start a group, and we thought that would be a great place to start. There was a meeting, and the club was created and is going right now. They've gotten donations of model trains and tracks, and they are up and running.
Dan: What town was next?
Tammy: We wanted to set up a Men's Shed in Leland. We began with a survey of the participants at the Senior Center. I set up a steering committee with the gentlemen that responded to that survey and found three gentlemen who were very excited about it. The interest of this group is doing things together. They hike the county trails, play bocce ball, and one of the artistic gentlemen presented a workshop. At a different time, a gentleman brought his old turntable and a bunch of albums, and they took turns picking music that meant something to them and playing the song and having a discussion. So they have a wide variety.
Dan: That is great. What’s the third town?
Tammy: The third Men’s Shed is in Calabash. We did not get any response to our survey, but one woman at the Senior Center kept talking to people and sending out emails and eventually, they set up a meeting and 10 men showed up. I think sometimes that the wives would read the email and tell the husband you need to go to this. The 10 men decided that what they wanted do was community service. So that has been their focus.
Dan: And you organized all three within a year?
Tammy: Yes. I've loved working with Men’s Shed’s and get getting these three groups going and it's been great.
Dan: What holds Men’s Shed’s back from further growth?
Tammy: The shortcomings arejust a general lack of awareness throughout the public, and a lack of government funding for support. I mean, you look at the UK, Ireland, and they have hundreds of Men’s Shed’s supported by government funds. But hopefully, we're getting a movement going that can help gain recognition and funding from any source.
Dan: Will you stay involved?
Tammy: Yes, I would like to stay involved, and I would like to see it spread. I am also working with the U.S. Men’s Shed’s Association. I have no regrets. No regrets. I've loved working with Brunswick Senior Resources. So, I mean, getting a Men’s Shed started can be as simple as a Zoom meeting once a week or whatever, so they can decide whatever works for the local men. But I need to find more avenues to get the word out to different areas, just to put it on the radar.
It’s been really rewarding and fun.
Dan: You have done a fantastic job. Thank you for your time.
Tammy: You are welcome.
“Cause when you are walking on thin ice you might as well
dance, dance, dance.” *
All active old goats youth of the 40’s becomes the aging of the 60’s. Eyes. Knees, Memory. They all start to go. Conversations quickly turn to and linger on operations, pills, and disease. No question about it, our lives exist on thin ice. The ice either gradually melts or suddenly opens under our feet. We all know the ending.
Facts About Older Adult Falls from the CDC
But we are active oldsters, right? We are alive. We play. We laugh at ourselves and with our friends and families. We think positively, try new foods, and accept a challenge. That’s why I love this quote. No tippy toeing around worrying about cracks. We choose to dance. We rock.
Because we want to dance through our last breaths, and because we are diminished and have a reduced ability to focus, we must compromise on what we do and how we do it.
My three helpful tips are named Space, Pace, and Place. They are free, they do not come in a bottle, and no outside assistance is required. I will blog about them one at a time beginning with Space.
“Space” takes many different forms such as outer space, storage space, emotional space, and living space. I want you to focus on the space you occupy at a given moment. You control this particular personal space. Let’s illustrate with an exercise. First, put on some music. Second, go to your entry door. Third, point yourself toward your kitchen. Fourth, spread your arms to create your maximum body width fingertip-to-fingertip. Imagine that you form a cylinder of space which is your height and the diameter of your arms-spread. You control this special space, and you determine what belongs in that space. Fifth, look at the floor in your space. Any shoes, wrinkled rugs, or other objects that do not belong? Remember you live on thin ice. You do want to risk slipping on a pet toy or tripping over a chair leg. Sixth, clear your space. Seventh, move your personal space cylinder along your chosen path to the kitchen, clearing obstacles as you go. Make sure to use your path even if it meanders around a table or the sofa in front of the TV. This is your space in your life. Eighth, clear paths to your bathroom, bedroom, and other parts of your living quarters, keeping the music playing.
You have created a safe dance floor around your home. You must take ownership and responsibility for this space and any other similar spaces you create elsewhere. Literally, you want to dance everywhere safely on thin ice. Equally important, it will reduce our real fear of falling. As I said this applies to every path you take wherever you are.
For example, my eldest sister failed to follow this advice and tripped over a misplaced suitcase in a motel room last December. She cracked a knee to two spots and is still recovering.
*Introductory quote from Scott Kirby’s title song of his CD “Walkin on Thin Ice.”
Protect yourself from falling
Turn in Your Keys, Mr. President
I firmly believe that Oldegoats are an ignored segment of society. In part, it may be our own fault. We must speak out more frequently about public matters that concern us, particularly when it concerns a peer. This, and not partisan politics, is why I wrote this letter.
Hey Joe
As a fellow octogenarian, I have felt the pain of your age-stiffened muscles, your embarrassment at failing to temporarily remember a name erased from your age-shrouded memory, and your fear after unintentionally saying something concocted by your age-bedeviled brain.
To borrow a phrase from you, here's the deal, Joe. We both know that no cure exists for these conditions, that they will grow inevitably as you age, and that we octogenarians will continue to lose control over mind and body. If we believe otherwise, we have a delusion, like the mythical Fountain of Youth or a delusion of grandeur.
You must know that scores of historians will be analyzing and rating your performance as President. Going forward, you face three determinative scenarios First, give up the keys immediately by announcing that you will not run, be praised by historians, and thanked by most Americans. If you require support, listen to LBJ’s March 31. 1968.speech announcing that he would not run for a second term. Second, run and lose and be scorned by historians and cursed by many Americans. Third, run and win. Ironically, this may be the worst-case scenario. Certainly, it is the riskiest for you and the country. All agree that the current treacherous domestic and international seas require precise navigation. Bluntly, your deteriorating mental and physical conditions likely will cause you to be incapable of successfully guiding this country. The historians will scald you, and I can't imagine how Americans will demonstrate their despair. If you doubt that icould happen, read about the pathos and chaos of Wilson’s last two years in officeafter he suffered a stroke during his second term.
I have heard that you have excellent handlers who can assist you with decision making. However, this runs contrary to the style of leadership used successfully on ships for millennia and sanctified as presidential by this time-honored statement “The President is the captain of the Ship of State “. The ship's captain has the duty, power, and authority to make all critical decisions. The crew (or group of handlers) carries out his orders. Americans want a mature leader, not a committee, as President.
As an octogenarian, I have had two give-up-my-keys experiences. With due respect, I do not infer that they are anywhere near as important as yours, Mr. President One occurred shortly after I began my practice. I was befriended by an older lawyer who was a name partner in a respected Madison law firm. I learned that he had been a good trial lawyer but was now relegated to small claims court and family court commissioner hearings. Over time I noticed that he often forgot a necessity such as a pen or legal pad. I gave him what he needed but felt a bit bad for his clients because they weren't getting the representation that they needed. One
time he came to a hearing without his client’s file or even his client’s name. I didn't see him again and later learned that his partners had had taken his keys by forcing him into retirement.
The second happened about 35 years later when I realized that it was time to turn in my keys to my successful career as a trial lawyer. It happened this way. I was waiting in the courtroom to speak to the judge about an uncontested matter. As I listened to two talented young lawyers perform on behalf of their clients, I realized that they were as quick as I used to be. In other words, I realized that I had lost the proverbial step that separates the adequate from the very good. I realized that I no longer could give my clients the high-quality representation that they deserved in court.
So, Joe, here's the deal. You need to admit that you have lost a step and no are no longer capable of giving Americans the high- quality performance that they need and expect from their President.
If only for your own legacy, you need to follow the multitude of American men and women who every year , for different reasons, turn in their keys.
Let’s do this thing, Mr. President. Turn in your keys.
Respectfully,
Dan Bell
Founder, oldegoats.com
I am writing this to help you stay relevant.
Better to be away from the crowd, than to be shorn by generative AI.
When I wrote my last AI blog, I thought that a middle ground existed between good medical research AI and bad, scammy AI.
I was wrong. I did not know that a generative AI tsunami targeting our brains had flooded the middle ground this year. I am not an AI expert, but I am obligated to warn you about generative AI. I am concerned that its users may take advantage of you and that, in general, its use may degrade your lives. I encourage you to read the experts’ pro and con opinions on the Pew Research site found below.
What is “generative AI”?
Generative AI is traditional AI on steroids. It allows a company to convert sound, including your voice, and images, including your face, into text, images, and videos that help it sell you its product.
Here is the definition from Investopedia.
“Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can produce content such as audio, text, code, video, images, and other data. Whereas traditional AI algorithms may be used to identify patterns within a training data set and make predictions, generative AI uses machine learning algorithms to create outputs based on a training data set.
Generative AI can produce outputs in the same medium in which it is prompted (e.g., text-to-text) or in a different medium from the given prompt (e.g., text-to-image or image-to-video). Popular examples of generative AI include ChatGPT, Bard, DALL-E, Midjourney, and DeepMind.”
Do boundaries exist for “generative AI”?
Not yet. No laws have been passed. And it appears that the AI developers can not define the boundaries.
Who supports “generative AI”?
Some researchers and developers
Companies that manufacture products, like ChatGPT, that allow consumers to use generative AI.
Online advertising companies. According to July’s CNBC report “How the Generative AI Boom Could Forever Change Online Advertising”,. it represents the next step in digital advertising. And the richest and most powerful online advertisers agree.
“Meta, Alphabet and Amazon, the leaders in online advertising, are all betting generative AI will eventually be core to their businesses. They’ve each recently debuted products or announced plans to develop various tools to help companies more easily create messages, images and even videos for their respective platforms.”
The smaller advertisers will follow the big boys.
Old Goats know that the only purpose of advertising is to sell you as much as you will buy. Beware of the “various tools” and remember that you are in charge of your life.
Is anyone concerned about “Generative AI”?
Yes, In June, the well-regarded Pew Research Center reported the opinions of experts in “As AI spreads Experts Predict Best and Worst Changes in Digital Life by 2035.”
“Some 79% of the canvassed experts said they are more concerned than excited about coming technological change or equally concerned and excited.”
Here are some of their concerns:
· That digital systems will continue to be driven by profit incentives in economics and power incentives in politics.
· These experts fear new threats to rights will arise as privacy becomes harder, if not impossible, to maintain. They cite surveillance advances, sophisticated bots embedded in civic spaces, the spread of deepfakes and disinformation, advanced facial recognition systems, and widening social and digital divides as looming threats. They foresee crimes and harassment spreading more widely, and the rise of new challenges to humans’ agency and security. A topmost concern is the expectation that increasingly sophisticated AI is likely to lead to the loss of jobs, resulting in a rise in poverty and the diminishment of human dignity.
· They fear that the best of knowledge will be lost or neglected in a sea of mis- and disinformation, that the institutions previously dedicated to informing the public will be further decimated, that basic facts will be drowned out in a sea of entertaining distractions, bald-faced lies and targeted manipulation. They worry that people’s cognitive skills will decline. In addition, they argued that “reality itself is under siege” as emerging digital tools convincingly create deceptive or alternate realities. They worry that a class of “doubters” will hold back progress.
· A share of these experts said humanity’s embrace of digital systems has already spurred high levels of anxiety and depression and predicted things could worsen as technology embeds itself further in people’s lives and social arrangements.
· Two overarching concerns: a trend toward autonomous weapons and cyberwarfare, and the prospect of runaway digital systems. They also said things could worsen as the pace of tech change accelerates. They expect that people’s distrust in each other may grow and their faith in institutions may deteriorate.
A final thought. Regular use of our brain stalls memory loss and related diseases such as Alzheimer’s. To the extent we let Generative AI take over our brains do we hasten the arrival of these two conditions which devastate our later life?
This blog covers the Bad.
HOW CAN AI HARM ME?
The scammers. These seriously twisted individuals who steal billions per year from Olde Goats. They deserve a special circle in Dante’s Inferno.
The Michigan Attorney General stated that “AI technology allows scammers to easily create and personalize scams to make them more convincing. It uses personal information pulled from social media profiles and other online sources to tailor the scam to you.” It recommended protecting yourself from these reptilian creatures by:
· Don’t trust the voice.
· Be skeptical when asked for money in any form.
· Hang up
· Call the person using a number you know to be theirs.
In addition, security experts recommend establishing secret word with loved ones to be used in an emergency and to reveal a scam.
Learn to recognize the ingredients of a scam.
Here are some frequent scams.
The Deepfake
The scammer creates a fake relative or close friend by using a clip from her voice taken from social media or a website, a copy of her face, and her personal information from various online sites.
You would swear that she was real. Your phone rings. The caller’s ID matches her number. She looks and sounds like your granddaughter. You would swear it was her She tells a tragic story of misidentification by the police, jail, and her need for $5000 right away for bail and an attorney. She instructs you where to send the money and tells you she’ll repay it promptly. She has always been a good girl. You agree.
After an hour of tears and worry, you call her. “Oh, gramps,” she says. “I never called you. You’ve been scammed. You need to get your money back.”
Of course, that is not easy. The Michigan AG suggests that you act immediately to minimize any damage. If you paid by:
You can also file a report with your local law enforcement agency and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at 877-382-4357.
Here are some other frequent scams that target Olde Goats.
The Romance Scam
Lonely Olde Goats frequent online dating sites. You describe the person you would like to meet. The scammer crafts the voice and image of your ideal date. After a few successful video dates to build a relationship, this ideal date will ask for money and will continue to ask for as long as you will give. As soon as you stop giving, she will be gone.
The Ransom Attack
This is like The Deepfake only a third person makes that call demanding money to save the loved person who is in trouble. The scammers may create the relative’s fake voice and image to convince you that they hold your loved one. If the voice and image are accurate, most people will send the money.
IRS Collection Letters
Scammers have used phony IRS letters demanding payment for years. Often you could identify phony letters by typos and grammatical mistakes. Now AI creates perfect letters, and scammers often follow up with phone calls demanding payment. Rather than paying, demand an in-person meeting and have a family member with you at the meeting.
The AARP warns to watch for these additional AI scams.
· The too-good-to-be-true offer from a foreign country. These scammers can use the AI power of Chatbox-like programs to write emails in perfect English, making their promises of great riches more convincing.
· The powerful multi-tool approach. The scammer combines an AI-generated email request with a copied voice and a Zoom picture to convince you that the call for help is real.
· The doomsday approach. The scammer gives the AI program all your information and instructs the computer to create the foolproof scam.
Eyal Benishti, CEO of Ironscales, a company that protects companies from online scams, raised this possibility during a recent interview with AARP.
With advanced AI, a criminal will also be able to give the software tasks,” he says, such as “your task is to convince Christina to wire money or give a credit-card number… Now go and figure out, based on her reply, how to do it.”
For safety we may return to face-to-face transactions.
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This blog covers the Good
Artificial Intelligence(AI) refers to a computer program that feeds an enormous amount of data into a computer and directs the computer to answer a specific question and/or solve a particular question.
Arend Hintze, an assistant professor of integrative biology and computer science and engineering at Michigan State University, explained that AI can be categorized into four types, beginning with the task-specific intelligent systems in wide use today and progressing to sentient systems, which do not yet exist. The categories are as follows.
TechTarget, a large publisher of enterprise tech content, published "A guide to Articial Intellignece Newsletter" which includes a library of information about AI including these definitions of its four stages. https://www.techtarget.com/searchenterpriseai/definition/AI-Artificial-Intelligence?Offer=abt_pubpro_AI-Insider
It is not certain whether it will reach development stages three and four. But note the ominous title the Chart gives to the fourth stage –“Self-aware”, meaning the AI can “bypass our intelligence.”
Even at stage two, AI is flourishing like mushrooms in the spring. The growth occurs in good areas, like medicine and education, and bad areas, like scamming and politics.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO OLDE GOATS?
Whether you like it or not, AI will affect your life. It may develop a drug that cures a life-threatening condition and extends your life. But you need to be wary of AI’s dark side. Slimy scammers or political operatives may intentionally use darkfakes to distort the facts to victimize you.
Olde goats who have jobs will be wary of AI programs that allow businesses to save money by streamlining procedures. Maybe that helps business, but maybe it harms society if AI eliminates more jobs than it creates.
IS AI GOOD FOR ME?
Yes. It could save or lengthen your life.
AI might be the most effective working to solve research problems in the medical and educational fields. I will give you an extremely simplified version of how AI manipulates data super-fast to help Olde Goats. Scientists searching for drugs to help Alzheimer’s victims will give the AI computer program all their information on the disease and on the compounds that might be part of a drug effective against Alzheimer’s. The AI program identifies the potentially helpful compounds much, much, much faster than the researchers would have identified them without AI.
For example, very recently, according to the Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, researchers may have saved years by using an AI-guided method to identify three drugs from 2,352 compounds which could decrease anti-aging diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and Alzheimer’s.
Separately, the medical journal Aging described a new 3-step suite of AI programs designed to speed up the process to put tested drugs for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cirrhosis, and others on the shelves. Within minutes the program’s first step identifies the causal molecular targets to eliminate; within a week the second step designs novel replacement molecules, and the third step designs and predicts the clinical trials of the drugs.
AI CAN BE AGEIST
However, according to the World Health Organization(WHO), AI technologies will not be equally beneficial unless treatment developers eliminate all forms of ageism from their development, use, and evaluation. In its policy brief, WHO states that the following changes are necessary:
· Participatory design of AI technologies by and with older people
· Age-diverse data science teams
· Age-inclusive data collection
· Investments in digital infrastructure and digital literacy for older people and their health-care providers and caregivers
· Rights of older people to consent and contest
· Governance frameworks and regulations to empower and work with older people
· Increased research to understand new uses of AI and how to avoid bias
· Robust ethics processes in the development and application of AI.
Olde goats must recognize and support AI’s use in medical research.
Ho. Hum. That best describes the report released last week “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community.” I found this 82-page report with 325 footnotes to be a stale compilation of the opinions of others supporting general call for help from government agencies and non-profits that I presume already provide help.
This is No Report for Old Men
It failed to recognize that men over 69 comprise one of the age groups most affected by this epidemic. I found two specific references:
· Among older adults, the effect of social isolation on hypertension risk is even greater than that of other major clinical risk factors such as diabetes. p 26
· Chronic loneliness and social isolation can increase the risk of developing dementia by approximately 50% in older adults. P 28.
A more enlightening and relevant report would reveal that Olde Goats, men 70 and older, are routinely discriminated against because of age. Include President Biden among those men tossed to the curb because of his age. Recently almost two-third of all polled said he is too old for another term and 48% of the Democrats polled agreed.
Define Loneliness
Being alone differs from being lonely. The old saying goes something like: “You can be lonely in a crowd and alone in a deserted forest.” The Center for Disease Control defines loneliness as “Loneliness is the feeling of being alone, regardless of the amount of social contact.” Loneliness can grow inside you after a friend dies. I find it to be almost physical,
I remember learning that these memories should be boxed up and permanently stored on the top shelf of some imaginary closet in my head .where it remained dormant until I saw Mike’s spouse or one of their kids and winced from the pain of renewed loneliness.
Every Olde Goat probably has similar memories, hopefully stored, and infrequently remembered. Their escape can cause chronic loneliness. Help exists.
What is Chronic Loneliness?
I want to share this comprehensive information sheet from Cigna Healthcare. https://www.cigna.com/knowledge-center/chronic-loneliness
Short-term bouts of loneliness can occur to many people at some point in their lives. These types of feelings are typically brief and not considered chronic. However, when feelings of loneliness and isolation worsen and continue long-term, there may be more serious signs and symptoms to be aware of and steps you can take to help deal with chronic loneliness.
Chronic loneliness occurs when feelings of loneliness and uncomfortable social isolation go on for a long period of time. It’s characterized by constant and unrelenting feelings of being alone, separated or divided from others, and an inability to connect on a deeper level. It can also be accompanied by deeply rooted feelings of self-doubt, low self-esteem, or social anxiety.1
Ongoing loneliness can afflict even the most seemingly outgoing person. Being the "life of the party" doesn't necessarily exclude someone from being chronically lonely. This type of chronic, or long-term loneliness, can eventually impact all areas of your life.
What are the main signs and symptoms of chronic loneliness?
Chronic loneliness symptoms and signs can differ depending on who you are and your situation. If you consistently feel some or all of the following, you may be dealing with chronic loneliness:
Can chronic loneliness lead to health problems?
Long-term feelings of loneliness can affect your health in many ways. For example, chronic loneliness can drive up cortisol levels in the body. Cortisol is a hormone that your body creates when under stress. Over time, higher cortisol levels can lead to high blood pressure, excess weight gain, muscle weakness, problems concentrating, and more.2
If left unchecked, these chronic loneliness symptoms can put you at greater risk for more serious medical and emotional problems, including:3
If you think you are suffering with long-term feelings of loneliness, talk to your doctor or a therapist.
What does chronic loneliness do to your brain?
Research shows that chronic loneliness can have a significant impact on your overall health, including your brain health. Some studies even suggest that there may be a link between loneliness and an increased risk for developing dementia and Alzheimer's.3
Long term feelings of loneliness and social isolation can also reduce cognitive skills, such as the ability to concentrate, make decisions, problem-solve, and even change negative self-beliefs. And it can ultimately lead to depression.4
Who’s most at risk for chronic loneliness?
Chronic, or long-term, loneliness can afflict all types of people. It’s easy to assume that someone who’s naturally shy and introverted might be most at risk, but outgoing, Type A, personalities can also suffer from chronic loneliness, even though they may appear to be the life of the party. This type of loneliness is not exclusive to any one personality type.
For some people chronic loneliness may become a side effect of a medical or emotional problem, including those dealing with the following issues:
All of these issues could also lead to long-term feelings of loneliness and isolation. Make sure your doctor, therapist, or other medical provider knows how you’re feeling emotionally.
What are some tips for dealing with chronic loneliness?
If you are dealing with feelings of loneliness that just don't go away, consider these tips:
If you are dealing with long term loneliness, the kind that doesn’t go away, talk to your doctor or another health care provider so they can help. Chronic loneliness is not just about feeling alone; if left unchecked it can put you at risk for serious physical and emotional issues.
Enjoy your week.
Dan
Here is the question for May.:
What skill would you/did you teach your grandchildren, nephews, and nieces?
I created a separate page for the answers. I anticipate that you Olde Goats have many old school skills. Please include illustrations or photos if appropriate.
Check new short story page. Hemingway leads off.
I will be 81 next month. Like all olde goats, I get lonely. I don't mean physically alone. I am fine alone in the woods or on the open water. I mean the killer loneliness, maybe caused by the death of a good friend, the” you are a great guy, but ….” letter from your first love, the loss of a job, or another of the many calamities of living to be 70. Each occurrence of killer loneliness feels like someone carved out a chunk of my inner being with a dull blade.
Ageing Changes Your Life
As you go deeper into your olde goat years, the way becomes more difficult and dangerous. Increased instances of killer loneliness become more frequent because of the inevitable deterioration of body and mind including:
· your legs give up and you can’t run K's anymore.
· your shoulder goes, No more golf.
· your balance goes. No more dancing with the grandkids.
· mentally you lose parts of your memory and have difficulty focusing on one topic.
· loss of stamina limits what you can enjoy.
· loss of irreplaceable friends and family members you regularly chatted with
· this depressing list goes on.
You Must Control Your Life
You will need help to survive if you intend to live your life to the maximum and say goodbye with a satisfied smile on your face. Most importantly you must help yourself by fiercely defending your right to make your own decisions. I picture Bob Seger straddling his Harley at the Continental Divide and singing from his song “Roll Me Away” – “ I can go east, I can go west period. It's all up to me to decide.”
At some point, the killer loneliness will bring you to the Continental Divide of your life. Go in one direction and decide to do something to overcome the loneliness. Go in the opposite direction and succumb to the killer loneliness and follow Misery Road as your spiral down into:
· Various psychiatric disorders like depression, alcohol abuse, child abuse, sleep problems, personality disorders, and Alzheimer's disease. It also leads to various physical disorders like diabetes, autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and cardiovascular diseases like coronary heart disease, hypertension (HTN), obesity, physiological aging, cancer, poor hearing, and poor health. Journal for Clinical and Diagnostic Research
· Heart disease and stroke, with a 29% increased risk for heart attack and/or death from heart disease and a 32% increased risk for stroke. American Heart Association
You want to take control of your life at the loneliness level. Backtracking up Misery Road is a very steep path for an olde goat.
How Do You Begin Your Escape from Loneliness?
First, you choose what you want to do. Second, you take the first step to do what you selected.
Here is a list of possibilities:
1. Writing or another form of art.
2. Volunteering.
3. Join a class, club, or religious group.
4. Strengthening an existing relationship.
I listed writing first for several reasons. It is not a new skill. We have been writing since we began school, and it is not difficult. I know it works because I have written myself out of the dark pit of loneliness several times. I recently created oldegoats.com because I knew from personal experience that old men have many stories and memories they need to share and old women generally do not want to hear them. This website gives men 70 and older a place to relieve their loneliness with no obligation and without cost by writing.
And, as I learned this week, a Harvard professor prescribes expressive writing as an antidote for loneliness. Dr. Jeremy Nobel, MD MPH has faculty appointments at the Harvard University School of Public Health and the Harvard Medical School. He wrote a blog https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/writing-as-an-antidote-to-loneliness-2018091414807 entitled “Writing as an Antidote to Loneliness”.
Here are the first and last paragraphs of that blog:
“It may not seem possible to be able to write your way to better health. But as a doctor, a public health practitioner, and a poet myself, I know what the scientific data have to say about this: when people write about what’s in their hearts and minds, they feel better and get healthier. And it isn’t just that they’re getting their troubles off their chests.
*******
I’ve documented some of the research being done in the area of healing and the arts. After reviewing more than 100 studies, we concluded that creative expression improves health by lowering depression and stress while boosting healthy emotions. So pick up a pen, and start to write creatively. For the mind and the body, writing is a strong prescription for good health.”
Dr. Nobel is the founder and president of the Foundation for Art and Healing (www.ArtandHealing.org) whose signature initiative, the UnLonely Project (www.UnLonelyProject.org), addresses the personal and public health challenges of loneliness and social isolation. I strongly suggest that you check out both websites for detailed information about the benefits of art, including expressive writing, for those suffering from loneliness.
So, follow the doctor’s advice. Go to your keyboard a tap out your first story. If you choose, start with something easy such as a favorite memory. Do not worry about length, style, punctuation, or spelling. Add your first name and last name or initial, and your address if you want. Aim your device at dan@oldegoats.com and click send. I will publish it on the website.
I guarantee that you will feel better.
Dan
Here is the question for May.:
What skill would you/did you teach your grandchildren, nephews, and nieces?
I created a separate page for the answers. I anticipate that you Olde Goats have many old school skills. Please include illustrations or photos if appropriate.
Please share this site with your fiiends
GO DEEP GRAMPA
(“Toe-to-toe with the unknown”)*
[Advice]
BENJAMIN GLUTTON
Unknown author, “Benjamin Glutton”, Harper’s Magazine, May 2023
From explanations given by centenarians for their longevity, followed by their ages at the time the advice was recorded.
Smoke 15 cigarettes per day, 100.
Drink one glass of Coors Light at 4pm each day, 100.
Eat nine gin-soaked raisins each morning, 105
Drink a bottle of whiskey a week, 107
Avoid water and drink up to four bottles of wine a night, 107
Knit sweaters for penguins, 108
Order hamburgers rare, eat chocolate, drink cocktails, and party, 108.
Do not get married and try to avoid all men, 109
Drink three beers with a shot of Scotch each day, 110
Smoke 30 cigarettes a day, 112
Smoke cigarettes, drink whiskey, and meet women, 113
Eat bacon regularly, 115
Eat ramen noodles and mackerel sushi regularly, 116
Eat one cooked egg, two raw eggs, and a portion of raw minced meat every day, 117
Eat olive oil regularly, consume more than two pounds of chocolate a week, drink wine, and smoke cigarettes, 122
I asked two friends to read this list. They agreed with me that these 15 folks were celebrating lives well led.
According to the Handbook of Research on Geriatric Health, Treatment, and Cure, “(O)ld age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the expectancy of human beings and is thus the end of the human life cycle. This definition includes our celebrating centenarians.
The most common definition labels all men over 60 or 65 as old. I believe that this definition follows the retirement age without considering the mental and physical condition of the person.
Why is this important?
This inhumane definition may be convenient for statisticians, but it offends the individual and particularly damages Olde Goats who have retired from their work life and been put out to pasture. Frequently, this leads to a lonely, depressing lifestyle that none of us should experience because of our age.
“Old” may accurately describe the condition of an inanimate object, as in "let's sell the useless old truck and buy a new one," but 'old" does not begin to describe the state of a person's life. “Old" connotes worn out, used up, and useless. Unfortunately, "old" may reinforce how too many Old Goats feel: Useless, depressed, and suicidal.
What can be done?
Realistically, the common definition will not disappear.
But I suggest that the word “deep” better describes life. Deep like deep into the ocean or deep into space. Unlike old, older, oldest, the three degrees of depth - deep, deeper, deepest- bring forth the mystery of the unknown.
And that, my fellow Olde Goats, describes life. Consciously or unconsciously, with every breath we explore the mystery of our life, including more unknowns than we can count. We don’t stop exploring the depth at 60 or 100 or 122.
If you are an Olde Goat who feels lonely, worthless, or depressed or like life isn’t worth living, go deep, and maybe one of these will help you think positively:
· Do not think of yourself as old. You are not.
· If someone labels you old, tell her or him not to do it again, ever.
· Do not use your age as your sole excuse not to do something.
· Remember that your life belongs to you and that you make the decisions.
· Make a list of what you have done. We are all storytellers and enjoy swapping stories with others.
· Make a list of what you can do.
· Make a list of what you want to do.
· Go do the first thing on your list, then the second, and so forth.
· If you are alone, take your thought or goals to a senior center or other gathering place or join other Olde Goats like you at oldegoats.com.
· Make friends.
Go toe-to-toe with the unknown, and you might not experience old age until you celebrate with chocolate and wine at 122.
*From Paul Zarzyski’s poem “Roadwork in the Boneyard” published on the Poems Page at oldegoats.com
Here is the question for May.:
What skill would you/did you teach your grandchildren, nephews, and nieces?
I created a separate page for the answers. I anticipate that you Olde Goats have many old school skills. Please include illustrations or photos if appropriate.
5 REASONS WHY I WON’T BUY AN EV NOW PART 1
This week's EPA pronouncement that two-thirds of the new cars sold seven years from now will be evs demonstrates the government’s blind eye neglect of seniors, the growing lower middle class, and the poor. I will dissect this policy in the next blog.
As an old goat, I treasure each moment of each day and all the little things that make me smile. I have enjoyed driving since I bought my first car in 1959, a '56 Ford. Driving down the street with windows down and radio a little loud, driving to a new place, and driving down a country road with my wife, destination unclear. I think many old goats share similar feelings.
My cars have all been affordable, comfortable, and amenable to my directions. If I must give up my car, I want something of equal value back. The current evs do not provide that.
They certainly are not affordable. I have limited income and maxxed out dreams. I do not want to pay 40-60,000 for an ev.
They do not seem comfortable. I think would be like sitting in front of a computer in a very small room. I rode in an Uber driver’s Tesla in Vegas(of course). I could not believe the large size of the screen nor the near-constant directives from a voice that reminded me of a backseat harpy.
The ev does only what its electricity-addicted battery allows. Say you want to go directly from A to D. Your math and your map tell you the ev can make it with volts to spare. But the boring and cautious ev likely will route you through B and C to satisfy its battery. And don't even think about a drive in the country to a destination unclear.
Maybe one day I will consider an ev will be the quality of a car. But not now for these reasons:
· COST
Average Price of the Top Ten Best-Selling EVs
The average price of the top ten electric vehicles in the US is about $68,817, with an average of $57,750 for the low-end trim of each model and $70,460 for the high-end trim of each model. For these ten EVs, prices range from $26,500 at the low end (the Chevrolet Bolt EV) and go all the way up to $119,990 for the most expensive trim of the Tesla Model X (still the base MSRP, since you can option the Model X up to $144,590).
Information from Find My Electric “The Ultimate EV Marketplace”
Most 70+ men probably would not want to pay these prices for a vehicle, except perhaps for the Chevy Volt. For example, using a price of $62,000, the approximate mean between the low-end high and low prices, and putting down 20% in down payment and trade-in, your monthly payment for a 7-year loan would be about $850 which is a lot to spend on a vehicle at this time of your life.
SUVs sold best in 1922, and the Toyota RAV-4 was the best-selling SUV at a base price of $23,000. This year, the b74x, Toyota’s electric SUV, starts at $42,000, an increase of $19K.
Many of us like or liked our F-150 which has been the bestselling truck for 46 consecutive years. Its base price for the EV Lightening has quietly increased from about $41,000 when Ford started its order list in October 2021 to $56,000 now.
· ROUTE
The range provided by your battery and the location of charging stations will determine your route. You may have to go places that you do not want to go or travel an out-of-the-way route to reach your destination. And this could hours to your road trip. And it would eliminate side trips to areas devoid of charging stations.
· CHARGING STATIONS
Companies own and maintain these. Because they make money from the sale of electricity, they will for sure install stations in high ev traffic areas like major highways and busy resorts. Low-income and rural areas likely will be left behind.
According to a J.D. Power's study, the number of failed attempts at a charging station increased from 15 percent in the first quarter of 2021 to 21 percent in the third quarter of 2022. I presume you would have to shorten the distance between charging stations to ensure you had mileage in the bank to get to another station.
· EMERGENCIES
I am thinking about natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornadoes that could cut off power to the power stations. You would be stranded in your ev unless you had a generator at home.
I would rather have a gas car. Gasbuddy.com will list the names of gas stations with fuel in stricken areas, and some states have laws requiring gas stations to install transfer switches to allow the use of a generator to provide power to the pumps.
· ENVIRONMENT
Considering this alone, less pollution from evs should improve the environment. However, I am not convinced that the government-orchestrated switch to EV, with the unknown effects of this tsunamic change on the American way of life, will have a net positive effect on the environment. More on this next week.
Topic for April -------
What is the favorite car you have owned?
Tell us about it.
Ostensibly, to reduce air pollution, the federal government and seven states want to force Americans to by ev's. The country has undergone major changes for the better but has never been driven by this mini-Mao tactic of government coercion.
The introduction of the Model T, which altered the meaning of the word horsepower, provides the best example of this change. After unsuccessfully introducing several cars, Ford introduced the Model T in 1909. It cost $825. 10,666 vehicles were sold. However, it caught on with the public. In 1911,34,857 were sold. Sales increased based on public demand, which reduced the cost which allowed Ford to reduce the price, which increased the number of buyers. This process continued through 1923 when more than two million Model Ts were purchased at $364 apiece. Competitors began producing more desirable vehicles, and Ford built the last of the 15 million Model Ts in 1927.
But this process of demand and supply between consumer and manufacturer continued and irreversibly changed the U.S. into a country with millions of registered vehicles in 2021.
For this reason alone, the federal and state government should cease interfering and allow this process to continue. As evs and their charging systems improve, more people will choose to buy an ev, and prices will fall, increasing the number of buyers. In a perfect world, gas vehicles will follow the horse and buggy to private property and museums.
But there are two other reasons why federal and state governments should go no further with this misguided project.
The ev needs a lithium battery, and lithium is an expensive mineral. Most of the lithium is mined in China, Chile, Argentina, and Australia. China refines most of the lithium, and sources most of the U.S.'s lithium. There is one small mine in the U.S. The U.S. ev manufacturers must compete with China, Germany, and all other countries producing evs for lithium. It has been likened to a gold rush. According to an International Energy Agency(IEA) report, existing mines and mines under construction will meet only 50% of the projected lithium need by 2030.
So, the questions are; Whether the manufacturers will have lithium batteries for the 8M vehicles the government is demanding they build? And if the answer is “who knows”, Is it not immoral for the government to demand that their citizens buy evs with no batteries?
Finally, environmental concerns exist on the front and the back ends. Despite being a relatively new industry, lithium extraction has a track record of land and water pollution. On the back end, the search continues for an ecologically safe way to dispose of or recycle lithium batteries.
Finally, I am not alone in thinking this plan will not work. The respected international news service Reuters is equally skeptical. Check out https://www.reuters.com/graphics/AUTOS-ELECTRIC/USA/mopanyqxwva/
Dan Bell
March 21, 2023
At sixteen I was nervous as hell as I headed toward the office door. A short guy smudged with grease with a ciggie hanging from his mouth met me halfway. He introduced himself as Don the owner. I told him I wanted the gas station attendant job for the summer. Don silently inspected me for what seemed like a couple days, then told me to follow him. I remember that I said no when he asked if I was afraid of work. Don told me to start work the day after school ended. I couldn’t believe I got the job. The station was the real full-service deal. Two sets of two pumps. Two bays. Mechanic on duty. Located at a main intersection on the newly constructed I-25 in suburban south Denver, summer travelers joined neighborhood regulars lining up at the pumps. A black, electrified cord running across the tarmac rang ding-ding when a car ran over it, calling me into action. I was the first man up that summer. Through the open window, the summer’s call-and-response went something like this:“How can I help you?”“Give me five dollars”“Regular or hi-test?”“Regular.” One day Don heard me offer “cheap or expensive” gas. After the customer left, he got in my face shouting that I should never use the word cheap to describe the products. Cheap, he said, means inferior. The tone of Don’s words imprinted my teenage brain. Sixty-four years later, I still ignore products advertised as “cheap”. I washed all the windows automatically and, if the driver wanted, I checked the tires. Under the hood, I wiped the dipstick clean with my red shop rag and guide it back into its hole for a measurement, checked the water by very, very gently turning the radiator cap to release the pressure. and checked the fan belt. The job ended with the bang of the hood.It could be car after car for hours. For the first time, I dripped the sweat from working hard, licked the blood from scraped knuckles, and laughed at bad jokes with men. I liked being included when Don, Joe, Kulakowski, Jerry, and the rest of the crew gathered around the red Coke machine to play a game I think Don invented. We each flipped the bottle over to get the city name where it was bottled. The farthest away won. Don is one of my memorable men. My firsts with him included my first beer in a bar and a visit to the dog races. Most importantly, Don taught me to value blue-collar work and gave me a deep respect for blue-collar workers which, in turn, gave me the confidence to take jobs as a tree trimmer, roofer, cab driver, grocery bagger, and lobster fisherman before I went to law school.I worked at the station for two summers before going away to college. At the Christmas break, I went to see Don about the next summer. He didn’t have the station anymore. I didn’t want any job. It would not have been the same without Don.
Men over 65 have the highest suicide rate of any age group, according to the National Institute of Health(NIH): 24.7 per 100,000 for men 65-74 compared to 5.6 for women that age and 40.7 for men over 75, more than 10 times the 3.9 rate for women in that age group. No one has established a precise cause, but irrelevance, depression, and poor physical and mental health are prime suspects.
Olde Goats generally were in charge during our prime work lives. We called the shots and set the agenda. That power and control became part of who we were. It fell away when we retired creating a cavern in our core. Unless we will it otherwise, the cavern walls will erode forming the deep pit known as depression.
Fortunately, we can control our own relevance by our actions. . The LSU women’s basketball team is a very recent example erasing irrelevance. In 2021, that team finished 9-13 and was totally irrelevant in terms of the NCAA tournament. The school acted in 2021 to become relevant by hiring a tigress who pieced together the team that became very relevant in 2023.
You can achieve, on your own, the same degree of relevance.
1. Be Relevant. Advocating for a return to” back-in-the-day” will make you irrelevant. The tech devices are here to stay. However, you will be relevant if you teach your grandchildren what they cannot learn from these devices like how to change a tire and how to pack a suitcase.
2. Be Active. To me, this means doing all that your body will allow. My cardio said that the heart loves exercise. Build a personal exercise routine that stretches your muscles. Respect your body’s changes. Before COVID, I regularly was on the podium for 5K runs in my age bracket. Now, my body has told me that my knees limit me to hiking and daily walks and that my torn rotator cuff keeps me on the sideline for golf and pickleball.
3. Be a Mentor or a Volunteer. This automatically could make you feel relevant because it may replace the sense of satisfaction your job gave you. Helping a child or another Olde Goat is special.
4. Maintain your Health. This has two parts. First, you need to take care of yourself by getting the necessary protein, exercise, water, and sleep. I will blog later about my PEWS plan. Second, you must let the medical providers take care of you. I don’t mean that you should become a hypochondriac. You know your body. If you have something new that doesn’t go away, make an appointment. That growth may not be pre-cancerous but, then again, it may be. My shortness of breath lead to a heart valve replacement three years ago. If I had ignored it, I would not be here today.
5. Share your experiences. No one else has your life experiences which you wove into the national fabric of the last 70+ years. Like jewels, each story gives color and texture to the picture you present to family members and friends. At every chance, tell your story and listen to the stories of others. You may find something in common.
Help other Olde Goats by posting here your tricks to remain relevant.
COMMENTS
Thanks Dan. I particularly liked Point 1 - teaching the non-tech to the kids. Jimmy is particularly good at that with Avery, it's nice to see. Have to work more on that myself with our grandkids.
Benn V.
I am relevant
Before you reached 70+, you probably had worked at least 50 years. Whether you were sitting at a desk or driving an 18-wheeler, your job became part of your identity. When you meet someone new, most likely you'll hear this question right away: "Where did you work?"
The odds are good that you enjoy answering that question. If you averaged 40 hours a week and 50 weeks a year for 50 years, you worked 100,000 hours. That is a lot of memories in your memory bank. Right? If you can share those memories, it will make you feel like you are still connected to your work. I saw this a couple of weeks ago during the break in our monthly card game. Ted, a regular player our age, mentioned he had worked in China. I asked him what he did. In a monologue, he described his adventures selling airplane parts in Asia in the 1970s. He stopped only because we resumed playing.
Here is another example of a "Where I Work" story I heard from a retired man who worked as a supervisor for a plant in Maryland in the 1980s. The owner told him that he was moving the factory to China. Of course, he did not like that, but here's what really upset him. The owner required him to go to China to train his replacement as a condition of giving him severance pay,
During your work-life, an amazing number of significant events affected employed people, and may have radically changed your life.
1929 Great Depression
1938 First minimum wage .25/Hour
1940 May Fuller receives first SS check -$22.54
1941-45 WWII
1945-69 Post-War boom
1950-53 Korean War
1950 First 35 military advisors go to Vietnam
1950-75 Vietnam War
1957 First Toyota HQ in the US
1958 First US satellite orbits
1964 Civil Rights Act
1961-69 Economic expansion
1968-82 Inflation
1973 Arab Oil Embargo higher energy prices caused Stagflation with High unemployment and high inflation
1976 Apple sells its first personal computer.
1979 US begins diplomatic relations with China
1980-82 Recession
1983-90 Solid growth
1991 Iraq War
1992 End of Cold War
1993 NAFTA
1990-1999 Growth of the tech industry
2001 China admitted to World Trade Organization
2002-2013 US loses 2.4 million jobs to China
(Source: Economic Policy Institute)
2001 Dot.com bubble bursts causing a recession
2001 9-11
2007-8 Market Crash and Great Recession
2010 Some jobs return to the US from China
2019 COVID
2023 economic insecurity, high inflation, low unemployment, and ??
Did one of these events affect your life? Tell us about it. Two or three paragraphs will be fine. Write as you talk. Send it to dan@oldegoats.com, and I will post it on the Where I Work page. Don't forget to sign your name.
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