Jeff Hamaoui

The demographics of our world are shifting. This is nowhere more evident than in the rise of caregiving in families. In the last five years, the National Alliance for Caregiving found that nine and a half million people in the US alone have become carers providing unpaid care to another adult. This growth trend shows no sign of slowing.

I am writing this on Thanksgiving day. Thinking about gratitude and some of the people in my life. I wanted to share a particularly unexpected friendship I have developed over the last 7 years. Life has a curious origami to it. Ways of folding in on itself, finding unexpected edges and if you are lucky revealing an unprecedented shape.

Last night was a full blown, full moon show here in Northern California. Driving through the hills of West Marin the moon appeared as a huge pumpkin colored disc on the horizon. Every detail of its surface magnified into startling clarity.

To Christine and Chip (Pronouns applied equally throughout to women and girls) The carpenter was a busy man His work his passion and joy He had dedicated all to carpentry Since he was just a boy

When I was 22, I got caught in a revolution in Venezuela. Caracas became the most violent city in the world with more deaths every day than anywhere else, including war zones. It was a scary place to be.

The idea came off the page Like a ship White and proud Slicing through lettered oceans Out and out to the heart of things.

You came frozen brittle Punched and pinched from the cold Washed by a strange wind To the warm Baja shore.

In our fast-changing world, it’s no surprise that even death has taken on a whole new reality. You might say death is being reinvented from the ground up—call it Dying 2.0. The facts speak for themselves. Since the 1900’s we have more than doubled our lifespan, adding almost 35 years to our lives. While exciting and re-energizing, it is stunning to watch as society does little to prepare for this new shift in reality.