Editor's Note : The following is an excerpt from the Prologue to a new book project about the experiences that will be encountered during our Golden Year of marriage.
August 28, 1960 was a typical hot and sunny day in San Juan, Puerto Rico, except for the fact that it was our wedding day, which made it special to us. Leading up to the big event was a series of first-time experiences for us both. We were both living in New York City and got married in Puerto Rico only to accommodate the bride’s family. They had returned to the place of their birth a couple of years earlier after building a life and thriving printing business in the Bronx...
In 1960, in our circle at any rate, if you knew anyone who was going to a party of any kind on the island, you were free to tag along. Today, by and large, most levels of Puerto Rican society are more savvy and aware of social morays. Back then, however, 75 close family and friends quickly swelled to 150 “hangers-on,” who expected food and drink. To this day, after attending many weddings and putting on a few, we agree that ours was the worst ever.
Moreover, we found the pickings in wedding gifts very slim by comparison to the experience of our friends who tied the knot in the states. Those friends, primarily three other couples, married just months before us. They are still very much our friends and they are still very much married, which makes us all rare birds. Bits of their own particular wisdom on the subject will be shared later. Collectively we now represent more than 200 years of experience in wedlock.
So while we were not as fortunate as our friends in the collection of wedding gifts, we did share their good fortune in staying power. What within our nature kept us all together? Who knows.The lightness of our satin wedding purse was clearly only a minor setback. It meant that the week-long honeymoon we planned at the lavish La Concha Hotel on the beach on the Condado tourist strip that was just beginning to develop in San Juan would be cut short.
We received the grand sum of $125.00 and four pieces of decorative plastic fruit, the kind you would put in a cut-glass bowl on a dining room table, if you had a cut-glass bowl or a dining room or a table for that matter. That sum, even in 1960 dollars, didn’t buy very much at a luxury hotel. We did have a couple of glorious days at the resort before the ill-wind started to blow. That gale of reality was not only the result of a lack of funds, but an approaching hurricane that drove us back to our family’s home.
The hurricane stood out in our minds, not only as an excuse for our abbreviated honeymoon, but as a catastrophe of epic proportions. The storm was called Donna and to this day it holds the record for the longest duration as a major hurricane with sustained winds of 115 miles per hour.
Donna wound her way across the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispanola, Cuba, The Bahamas and every state on the east coast of the United States over a 17-day period from August 29 to September 14, 1960. She left in her wake $900 million in property damage in 1960 dollars, which would today be the equivalent of $6.6 billion in 2010 dollars. Donna also took 364 lives directly, 107 of which were lost in Puerto Rico, due to flash floods along the east coast, mostly in Humacao. Meanwhile, we were cloistered in Rio Piedras under the mosquito net, oblivious to the devastation that had befallen people beyond our little enclave.
That was the beginning of our first 50 years of marriage. Over that time, we have run into many roadblocks to our plans but always found a way around them or through them to move happily ahead together, raising a family, building businesses and enjoying lasting and valuable relationships.
Building on that experience, we're ready to greet whatever the next 50 years bring us with light-hearts and, maybe just a little, light-headed from all the joy.
That (Isn't) That...
Friday, August 27, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Silver Sneakers Rule... Then What?
Twice a week my wife and I get decked out in our gym togs and go to the "Y” (formerly known as the YMCA) to participate in the Silver Sneakers fitness program along with thirty-or-so other seniors. We have never been joiners, but, at my wife’s behest, we decided to see what our health insurance company was touting as an outstanding personal wellness undertaking.
We’ve now been at it for about six months and can unequivocally attest that it has been the best investment of time and energy we have made in years. We started out with a degree of skepticism acquired in our youth on the streets of the Bronx in New York City.
Of what value is marching in place while sitting in a chair?, we wondered. Besides, everyone in the room, except for the instructor, was old and we have always tried to be around younger people who can be more fun. We soon found that there is much more to Silver Sneakers than marching in place and the people who subscribe to the program are more alert and vivacious than they appear at first glance.
The exercise regiment involves dumbbell weights, a rubber pulley band and a rubber ball that is larger than a soft ball and smaller than a soccer ball. These apparatus are lifted, pushed or pulled in sets of repetition counted out by the trainer with fast-paced music in the background. It can be Lady Gaga or Ricky Martin or some hip-hop group urging the Silver Sneakers on to the next level of exertion with the cadence of sounds that are unfamiliar to many people in the class.
The music of Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra or the Beatles would probably be more to their liking, but the whole idea of Silver Sneakers is to shake people out of their comfort zone and get them to share on a higher plain of physical activity.
Moreover, the realization of what we accomplish in class has encouraged many, my wife and I included, to exercise at the “Y” on off days. As a result, we are experiencing less aches and pains, fewer sleepless nights, lower blood pressure and cholesterol and more energy. Best of all, we are losing weight for the first time in a decade.
Multiply those individual achievements, small as they may be, by the millions of people over the age of 65 and the health care system in the United States will unquestionably benefit; more importantly, so will the general population that relies on that system.
A recent study confirms those benefits. Researchers found that participants in the Silver Sneakers program had reduced their health care costs substantially and were hospitalized less than non-participants in a control group. The study was conducted by Group Health and the University of Washington in 2008 and was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In March of that year, Healthways, Inc., which founded Silver Sneakers in 1992, counted 2,800 participating fitness centers in 49 states. Since then the program has grown rapidly. By 2010, the network was up to 10,000 fitness centers, including the “Y,” 24 Hour Fitness, Curves, Gold’s Gym, Lifestyle Family Fitness and even community centers, making the program accessible to older people almost everywhere free of charge.
Healthways partners with dozens of major health insurance providers to deliver the exercise program to older folks, who qualify for Medicare, at no additional cost beyond their supplemental insurance premium. That makes good business sense because the less we use the health care system, the more efficient and profitable the companies become. Silver Sneakers is a win-win all around.
So as I huff and puff my way to the nirvana of physical fitness and watch us older folks collectively rejuvenate, I have only one nagging question. How will our youth-oriented society deal with revitalized elders, who are healthier, fitter and increasingly motivated to stay active and productive? If the economy can’t make room for them, volunteerism may be a partial solution, but it won’t pay the bills for over-achieving old-timers, who continue to earn the right of full participation in the mainstream.
And, That's That...
We’ve now been at it for about six months and can unequivocally attest that it has been the best investment of time and energy we have made in years. We started out with a degree of skepticism acquired in our youth on the streets of the Bronx in New York City.
Of what value is marching in place while sitting in a chair?, we wondered. Besides, everyone in the room, except for the instructor, was old and we have always tried to be around younger people who can be more fun. We soon found that there is much more to Silver Sneakers than marching in place and the people who subscribe to the program are more alert and vivacious than they appear at first glance.
The exercise regiment involves dumbbell weights, a rubber pulley band and a rubber ball that is larger than a soft ball and smaller than a soccer ball. These apparatus are lifted, pushed or pulled in sets of repetition counted out by the trainer with fast-paced music in the background. It can be Lady Gaga or Ricky Martin or some hip-hop group urging the Silver Sneakers on to the next level of exertion with the cadence of sounds that are unfamiliar to many people in the class.
The music of Ella Fitzgerald or Frank Sinatra or the Beatles would probably be more to their liking, but the whole idea of Silver Sneakers is to shake people out of their comfort zone and get them to share on a higher plain of physical activity.
Moreover, the realization of what we accomplish in class has encouraged many, my wife and I included, to exercise at the “Y” on off days. As a result, we are experiencing less aches and pains, fewer sleepless nights, lower blood pressure and cholesterol and more energy. Best of all, we are losing weight for the first time in a decade.
Multiply those individual achievements, small as they may be, by the millions of people over the age of 65 and the health care system in the United States will unquestionably benefit; more importantly, so will the general population that relies on that system.
A recent study confirms those benefits. Researchers found that participants in the Silver Sneakers program had reduced their health care costs substantially and were hospitalized less than non-participants in a control group. The study was conducted by Group Health and the University of Washington in 2008 and was funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In March of that year, Healthways, Inc., which founded Silver Sneakers in 1992, counted 2,800 participating fitness centers in 49 states. Since then the program has grown rapidly. By 2010, the network was up to 10,000 fitness centers, including the “Y,” 24 Hour Fitness, Curves, Gold’s Gym, Lifestyle Family Fitness and even community centers, making the program accessible to older people almost everywhere free of charge.
Healthways partners with dozens of major health insurance providers to deliver the exercise program to older folks, who qualify for Medicare, at no additional cost beyond their supplemental insurance premium. That makes good business sense because the less we use the health care system, the more efficient and profitable the companies become. Silver Sneakers is a win-win all around.
So as I huff and puff my way to the nirvana of physical fitness and watch us older folks collectively rejuvenate, I have only one nagging question. How will our youth-oriented society deal with revitalized elders, who are healthier, fitter and increasingly motivated to stay active and productive? If the economy can’t make room for them, volunteerism may be a partial solution, but it won’t pay the bills for over-achieving old-timers, who continue to earn the right of full participation in the mainstream.
And, That's That...
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