This summer, Travel & Leisure magazine published an article (https://bit.ly/3FqZoNU) about the 24 most beautiful places in Mexico and our little farming and fishing village, Pescadero, was at the top of their list.

When I saw the title of this recent New York Times article (https://bit.ly/3QqrzmC), I quickly checked to see if it was written by one of our MEA faculty members or alums. It wasn’t, but the article profiles one of our favorite academics, Dr. Becca Levy, who’s spoken to our MEA community.

I feel like a little kid at Christmas time who has asked for a bunch of gifts and can see the shape of the presents under the tree—a Hot Wheels track, a GI Joe, and a basketball. I can hardly wait to rip open the wrapping paper and start playing. Of course, as a 63-year-old, my gifts nowadays are the friends and thought leaders we attract to MEA—the gifted facilitators we are fortunate enough to co-lead workshops with. And believe me when I tell you that next July is shaping up to be a time of many gifts.

For those of you who’ve experienced an MEA workshop, you know that we’re a midwife for midlife epiphanies, and magic often shows up in the middle of the classroom. I’ve suggested that part of what’s happening is “collective effervescence,” when our sense of ego separation dissolves, and a sense of communal joy arises based on our shared mission or ethos.

Chip recently asked in a blog, "How do you ask for help when you're embarrassed to do so?" It's been a week of reflection for me. For I too used to resist asking for help. That was my identity. I built a remarkable career with that trait. I was the "essential one" – key to winning the biggest-of-big pitches, a magnet for press interviews, the one who C-suite clients were drawn to.

Dating at any age is fraught with challenges. Dating in your fifties (and beyond), however, has its particular issues. And I’m not talking about the usual complaints about the size of the male pool versus the number of available females, or the “age-appropriate” question.

At the airport recently, I heard a little piece of what I would consider unintended ageism passed on from a mother to her six-year-old daughter.

A British online magazine asked women and men about their 20 most prized possessions. What do you notice when comparing the two lists below? Beyond the fact that men tend to fixate on expensive, tangible things (and their music in nostalgic forms: records and CDs) and women’s nostalgia is more focused on the family (photos, childhood pictures, children’s artwork, baby clothes, and parent’s wedding rings), there’s something seriously missing here.

Ken Dychtwald has been my “modern elder” for a couple of decades since I got to know him as a fellow Esalen Institute donor and all-around cool dude. How many hipsters in their twenties in the 1970s decided to explore aging and longevity as a career? Not many, but Ken has always been ahead of the curve, creating Age Wave long ago. For a half-century, he’s been offering the world all kinds of interesting data to back up the socio-demographic changes we’re seeing around aging.

The average retirement age in the U.S. is starting to resemble a U-curve. In 1900, it was 76 years old (I know! Surprising, right?). It didn't settle into age 65 until 1970, and then there was a precipitous drop such that, by 1990, it had dropped to 57. The retirement age grew after that point, rising to 60 in 2000 and nearly 62 in 2020. This upward trend continues, as the average age at which employed Americans say they'll retire is now 66.