And increasingly, the need to read the words written by people in my own age becomes challenging.  Much good to read, but oh, to hear from those with the years of experience that leads to wisdom.

What an absolute treat then, when Persimmon Tree appeared.  A challenge for those of us who prefer to touch and feel the paper we are reading, but still a remarkable assemblage of creativity and talent by women over 60.  To quote the editors, “Many women are at the height of their creative abilities in their later decades and have a great deal to contribute. Persimmon Tree is committed to bringing this wealth of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art to a broader audience, for the benefit of all.”

Okay,  sometimes I print it and sometimes I email the magazine and beg for the inclusion of a one button option that would print the whole thing, but that is me and their offerings are great.  Some of the authors and artists have fame from the past and it will feel like a step into a scrapbook of sorts and some are delightful new finds.

Go find it — you’ll even be able to read their library that dates back to the grand beginning — Spring of 2007.  No cost.  Quarterly.  Immerse yourself.

http://www.persimmontree.org.

The new issue, Summer 2009, includes in the nonfiction section, the following offerings, by decade,  of sagely wonder aimed at the experience of entering the next decade –

Vivian Gornick Turning Sixty

Sandra Butler Tiptoeing Toward Seventy

Dorothy Bryant Pushing Eighty-Still Pushing Books

Roussel Sargent Reaching Ninety

Katherine Bradway On Approaching My Hundreth Year

I once talked briefly with a man who introduced himself as someone who had “successfully completed” four marriages.  I was in the throes of a divorce myself and feeling just short of a Total Failure As a Human Being, so hearing him suggest that there may be a salutary way to break the holy bonds of matrimony, as the clerics say, was a much-appreciated epiphany itself.

Though nonetheless not so easy to actually do.  Divorce, that is.  Unlike, as it turns out, successful aging, which sort of has the same vaguely oxymoronic feel as successfully completing marriages. In the former case, however, we can keep it simple, thanks to George E. Vailliant, M. D. In his groundbreaking Harvard University study, he was able to reduce successful aging to the following six recommendations:

1.  Don’t smoke.

2.  Drink in moderation.

3.  Maintain healthy weight with some exercise.

4.  Create loving relationships.

5.  Keep learning.

6.  Have a good attitude.

You notice how there’s no mention of good (not to mention tight-fitting) genes as a factor? Amazingly enough research shows genetics are less an influential factor than the above considerations. Maybe I don’t need that DNA analysis after all.