I can’t speak for the gray haired ladies in the photographs but for 5 years I was gray and had a lot of compliments because it was so healthy and “different” for someone my age. I did not have to color it or do other things that damage hair. Towel dry and a short hair blow on warm to finger comb the style in it. One guy dated me because he was first infatuated with MY hair, lol. Anyway, I felt that in the working world I was making myself appear older than I was becasue at that time younger people just saw the gray and thought “old”. Unfortunately, I colored it blond. Then Meryl did “The Devil Wears Prada”. My granddaughters begged me to let my hair grow back to it’s natural color. They thought it was sooo cool that I had her hair.They even started telling me their favorite colors I wore with the gray hair. Purple won hands down. I’m trying to do it again but the process of letting it grow out naturally is hard. I know from my previous experience of going natural that the hair cut made all the difference. Thanks for the post. For some reason every time I come to this site I read something that I need to read for me. Thanks.

Julia, thanks for your response. Sharing your history and your determination to not let that history define who you are and your life in the present is inspirational. I just recently found this site and am learning so much from the ladies ( and gentlemen). Others not being judgemental while giving opinions and life experiences and lessons learned is something needed at a time of extreme change in my life. Jane Fonda recently said she was taking theology classes in Atlanta because of how she wanted to live the last third of her llife. I think I want to keep learning from others and as I have said previously, just retire from a job. Not retire from life.

Joan, thank you so much. I SO needed to “hear” what you wrote today. I going through a rough patch with health right now and will be retiring. I am so fortunate to have a small retirement fund to fall back on. However, the insurance benefits that I will retain as a retiree are the most important to me at this time in my life. I now realize how fortunate I am. And to be inspired by the ladies, like you, who write here is a gift. Thank you again. P.S. You have inspired me to not retire from life. It is just a job.

Julia, How can I learn to do that? Really, I’m not being sarcastic, I just can’t seem to live in the moment except for very short periods of time. And my history affects how I react to the moment.

Oh, my. Reading previous posts and found out that responding to Dr. Klein is not done. My bad. I was just thinking about how my life might had been different if I had taken a different fork in the road and wrote about it.

Glad to see that others think that we have to accept and live in a geopolitical, global economic neighborhood. However, that neighborhood does not want to accept us and live with us except to exploit us. Astonishing statement? Not really. Just one example of a personal “ahhh” moment”. My friend’s husband was a blackhawk pilot. While in the Middle East he was told by a Saudi pilot that they didn’t have to fight their wars. They paid the U. S. to do that for them. My friend’s husband left the military and went to law school and is now an elected judge and is a Democrat. He can’t stand the present administration running the country. Extrapolate that into what we are thought of by the people we are having to do business with. Yes, we need to know them. “Keep our friends close and our enemies closer”.

I don’t know any young person who wants to work in a textile or steel mill. However, they want the goods produced. In my neck of the woods they are going into the businesses that provide services. I think I read about that decades ago. Now we are the future. Anyway, I think China is using military labor and prison laborers for production. They also have very little quialty control when producing goods. Our presence there is making them take accountability for quality of their efforts. We are rapidly becoming a country of the wealthy and the poor. The middle class is shrinking fast. The poor are ones who are scrapping by with minimum wage jobs and can’t afford health care. I know these people. They are my children and my friends’ children. Maybe I could use some of the dividends I have gotten from my investments to help mine. However, I have my retirement invested in stocks and haven’t seen a big dividend yet on my statements. Just a lot of trees cut down with lists of names who are on the boards of the companies or will be with my voting proxey given to the sender. When will a profit become obscene? It has already been there and done that. So, to make more, take the companies to over populated countries and let them produce with their slave labor. Don’t know the answer for this evolving state of economic affairs. You don’t either.

Alessan, you are so right! Until China changes it’s record on human rights we should not be so willing to share anything with them. What is wrong with this country…we are just giving it away, and all the while running up a debt that is unthinkable. I am not an isolationist. However, sometimes we need to pull back and look within, determine what the problem is we should be trying to solve and then, after solving the problem, see where that leads us. Our problems are deep and wide & we are talking about sharing power and free trade with other countries? Let’s determine first if that benefits us or harms us. Just because someone said we have to get use to sharing does not mean it is so. Please, what can we do to save our country? We are in deep sh!t. And we need to regroup, determine the problems and find a solution. We can do it. But only if enough people care to make their voices heard. I remember when our voices were heard and the Vietnam war ended. Time is running out, folks. Jessie Ventura was on TV with Leno tonight and he thinks we need to be able to vote in the presidential election for ‘NONE OF THE ABOVE’. We need change but not the kind being offered to us. Whatever that is. All I know is the word, don’t know the what.

Gosh, I really, really hope my granddaughters’ generation realize that having it all is not what my generation thought it was. My friends have not faired well. Divorces, children with too many issues and problems, and our feelings of guilt for the things left undone. Most of the women of my generation in the area of the country I live have had a hard time. I know I sound negative but we really have not faired well. We are so tired. All I really want is a rocking chair, a little garden with flowers and vegetables and a loving partner. Having good health is more important to me than I ever thought.

Dr. Klein, I can’t believe many have not responded to your appraisal of what having it all means. Actually, I tried to have it all….back to school for a degree after having my two children at a very young age. I had the husband, children, career, active social life. The whole nine yards. Then I got the divorce, had to help with the raising of a grandchild because I had spent too much time at work and didn’t know my daughter. My job in the health care field is very demanding and I missed so much.The father of my children remarried and went on with his life. I spent many hours with my doctor talking about the guilt I felt because I was not good enought to have it all and do it well. Somehow I had determined that I had to do it all without a support system. I remember my mom had younger sisters who carried me and my brothers around on their hips and kept us occupied while she did the washing on a wringer washer and hung the clothes on the line in the back yard. There were always extended family members visiting and the work was shared by all. That was not the case in my house and many of my friends’ home. Most were divorced, also. We tried to extend a hand to each other but we were sinking. Now we are in our early 60’s. We are with our second husbands and trying to have some perspective about what we can and can’t do. Sorry Marlo, but I wish I had not watched your husband’s talk show. I bit the apple extended by the women libbers and paid dearly for it. I must have missed the part about how to budget my time and do it all. I have respect for getting as much formal education as possible. However, to think we can work, raise kids, be a loving wife, have time for the spirital feeding for our mental and emotional health, etc. is not possible because we don’t have the extended family support and most of the next generation of professional women I know still haven’t figured out how to do it all. But they are only doing what mom did. And, the men are not being responsible because they know the little woman will take care of everything just like mom did. I’ll hush. No one wants to hear this.

Fluffy, love your commentary. You would drive my brother, a born again conservative Christian absolutely crazy. You could counter, he could counter attack and etc. I think Lyndon Johnson was one of our greatest presidents. When I have actually said that, I have been given strange looks and that hand action that indicates I am crazy. He made a HUGE mistake re: Vietnam and listening to the military. He didn’t want to be the first president to have a lost war in his historical record probably. Anyway, Johnson was a Democrat and he, during the aftermath of Kennedy’s assignation and the shock, was able to push through much legislation that we take for granted today. Wish he had been wiser re:Vietnam.

Sibell, “vote McCain or stay home”? That seems to be my option, too. I CAN’T STAND IT!! OOPS! I promised myself not to get emotionally involved this time. The last election nearly drove me crazy. I live in a state that voted GWB. I had no one to vent to, so, I ate everything fattening and snapped at people who did not give a sh!t about who was elected to the highest office of our country. I must drink my “calming” tea and live through this. Oh, I read ‘The Prince’ when my boyfriend handed off his books to me from his college summer reading list many years ago. I actually liked ‘Brave New World’ better. “Soma” anyone?

Thanks, Sibelle. I read the article re:Obama and now I know why I felt in my gut that Hillary was the one, not him. I,sometimes, thought my background was affecting my vote in the primary for Hillary and and felt fear of Obama. Now I know the word I couldn’t quite acknowledge was there all along. “Machiavellian”. Dangerous, yes !

sibelle, I hope he is getting enough. :) His wife is attractive and he is average looking. All tall, slim men look good in suits. He is lucky to have someone as down to earth as she appears to be on the campaign trail with him. Or she is a great actress and deserves an Oscar.

Please, let’s leave “sexy” out of it. I reaallly want a president who is intelligent and honest. Someone who loves the USA enough to give 4 years of his life in service to his country. The CEO of any big company in this country makes more than the president. It should be the person who is elected to feel it is an honor and a privilege to commit his time and talents in this time of need in this great land. Let’s forget the p.r. crap. I am a 60 year old woman and I want to see this country respected and a leader of the world. We need intelligent people who care. Not sexy people.