About this item
The acclaimed author of Whats Worth Knowing reveals the truth about aging Old age often offers a richer better and more self-assured life than youth From our earliest lives we are told that our youth will be the best time of our lives-that the energy and vitality of youth are the most important qualities a person can possess and that everything that comes after will be a sad decline But in reality says Wendy Lustbader youth is not the golden era it is often made out to be For many it is a time riddled with anxiety angst confusion and the torture of uncertainty Conversely the media often feeds us a vision of growing older as a journey of defeat and diminishment They are dead wrong As Lustbader counters quotLife gets better as we get older on all levels except the physicalquotLife Gets Better is not a precious or whimsical tome on the quirky wisdom of the elderly Lustbader-who has worked for several decades as a social worker specializing in aging issues-conducted firsthand research with aging and elderly people in all walks of life and she found that they overwhelmingly spoke of the mental and emotional richness they have drawn from aging Lustbader discovered that rather than experiencing a decline from youth aging people were happier more courageous and more interested in being true to their inner selves than were young peopleLife Gets Better examines through first-person stories as well as Lustbaders own observations how a lifetime of lessons learned can yield one of the most personally and emotionally fruitful periods of anyones life As an eighty-six-year-old who contributed her story to the book noted quotFor me being old is the reward for outlasting all the big and little problems that happen to all of us along lifes pathwayquotThe collected stories in Life Gets Better provide a hopeful corrective to the fear of aging aggressively instilled in us by the media Dont dread the future The best years of our lives just may be ahead.
About the Author
Wendy's publications include two videos. The first, "A Prescription for Caregivers," shows caregivers and those who assist them how to make life better for the giver and receiver of care. In her other video, "Kind Hands," front-line workers learn how to respond to grief and vulnerability. Wendy's first book was co-authored with Nancy Hooyman, Taking Care of Aging Family Members. This is a practical guide to caregiving, with a detailed index to help readers find exactly what they need. Her second book, Counting on Kindness, helps readers to comprehend the complex and often unspeakable feelings which arise when we become dependent on others for help. Her third book is What's Worth Knowing, a collection of pithy insights gathered from older people. Her newest book, Life Gets Better, explores how life improves as we get older, on every level except the physical.
