ENLIGHTENED AGING

Roger Angell: Resilience Personified

BY ERIC B. LARSON, MD, MPH

Eric B. Larson, MD,

MPH, is the author, with Joan DeClaire, of Enlightened Aging. He is the founding principal investigator of the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study, ongoing for about 30 years. ACT recently was awarded a $55.6 million expansion grant from the National Institutes of Health. Roger Angell died this past May at 101. A renowned essayist, Angell had a distinguished career as a writer and longstanding fiction editor at the New Yorker. He was best known as a sportswriter, especially for his keen insights on that great American pastime, baseball.

Yet, upon news of his death, the word “resilience” popped into my mind and I thought about the famous essay he wrote on aging for the New Yorker in February 2014 at age 93. Rereading “This Old Man,” I am convinced striving to build resilience—the theme of my book Enlightened Aging: Building Resilience—for a long, active life makes sense. But aging well over a long life also involves acceptance, equanimity, avoiding resentment, and viewing aging as a positive. Angell says his biggest surprise was the need for deep attachment and intimate relationships as we age.

“This Old Man” begins with a laundry list of maladies and losses: Arthritis with painful, loose joints; macular degeneration; daily need for Tylenol for pain following shingles; arterial stents and a hole in his heart; back and knee deformities so he now resembles Geppetto.

Angell wrote he’d “endured a few knocks and missed worse,” then shared a long (and incomplete) list of friends, teachers, acquaintances, and others from his life who are now gone. Tragedies included the unexpected suicide of his daughter, Callie, and death of his second wife after 48 years of marriage.

Surviving what he called “long odds,” to reach 93, Angell’s grateful. “I’m not dead and not yet mindless,” he wrote. But Angell acknowledged that a downside of great age is the room it provides for rotten years and that “the accruing weight of the losses don’t bury us.”

He noted in the article at the time that he was still working and had stuff “I get excited or depressed about.” Angell especially recounted the value of friends and pleasant events, past and present, experienced over his remarkable 75 plus years of adult life.

Angell wrote about the constant need for more venery—more love, more romance, more sex. In the end he cited that getting to such an old age was the second biggest surprise of a long life. The first biggest surprise was an increasing need for deep attachment and intimate love.

The honesty of “This Old Man” certainly reflected Angell’s resilience. And I was struck at how he accepted aging with equanimity. He did not deny that aging brings losses and physical changes we would choose not to experience. He did not succumb to resentment. Instead, Angell accepted change and found a course—an ability to adjust that allows one to carry on in the face of adversity. I wonder if he was familiar with the “Serenity Prayer”: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

REAL ESTATE Q & A FOR EVERY SEASON OF LIFE

BY REBECCA BOMANN OF SASH

QWe will be squeezing every dollar from the sale of our home to pay for our retirement and future care needs. Any tips on how we can maximize our sale price, especially now that the market is cooling down?

APresentation is the key to making the most from your home sale. Buyers make an emotional decision when they choose to buy a home. They will be more likely to bid on your home—and pay more for it—if it presents well. Here are my tips on easy and affordable actions you can take to maximize selling price:

Sell any valuable items that you no

longer need or want. This creates space, and helps pay for sprucing up the home. There are professionals who provide assistance selling household items; get a referral from your Realtor®!

Sort and pack away household

clutter. You will be moving anyway, and everything will be packed or donated soon. If you pack up before listing for sale, your home looks more spacious and attractive. ? Do a deep clean. Scour drawers, appliances, light fixtures, closets, corners, and windows. Buyers look everywhere, and cleanliness makes a great first impression. Make your home sparkle! Spruce up the front. Hire someone to pressure wash the driveway and walkways. Buy a fresh new welcome mat for your front door. Weed landscaping areas. Purchase flowers or plants that provide color. These make your home shine in person and in photos.

Hire a Realtor® who demonstrates high standards in listing presentations.

They should insist on professional photography good lighting, beautiful flyers, and multi-faceted marketing of your home (online and in-person).

QWe interviewed 3 agents when deciding who would represent us in the sale of our home. Each came in with a different proposed list price. Who is right? Who should we choose?

AThe beauty of the real estate market is that it is full of data—a constant supply of up-to-date information about homes that are active, pending, and sold in your area. A good Realtor® will present you with concrete market data as the basis for why your home could sell for a certain price. They will share comparable sales with you and give you an assessment of how your home’s features will appeal to the market. This data-based approach is straightforward and trustworthy. An agent that proposes a high potential sale price just to woo you into signing a listing contract with them can cause a lot of disappointment, delays, and missed opportunities. They raise hopes DO YOU HAVE A REAL ESTATE high but don’t offer data QUESTION FOR US? SEND IT TO: to back it up.

QUESTIONS@SASHREALTY.COM

Choose a professional who does their research, knows the market well, and has the experience to price your home correctly for a successful and timely sale. You’ll be glad you did. Rebecca Bomann is founder and CEO of SASH Services, and Designated Broker of SASH Realty. Bomann created SASH to provide real estate services tailored for clients’ unique needs. Since 2005, SASH has served clients of all ages, with specialized home sale services for older adults and their families.

CONTACT US AT SASH TO LEARN MORE! www.sashservices.com · www.sashrealty.com

Exceptional Service from Start to Sold Serving the Greater Puget Sound Area Since 2005