What's worth knowing / [compiled by] Wendy Lustbader.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lustbader, Wendy.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Life.

Older people--Interviews.

Older people.

Genre:

Interviews.

Physical Description:

243 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, [2001]

Summary:

What makes a good life? And how do we live it? Though we've explored these eternal questions through literature, art, and philosophy, the answers can actually be found much closer to home -- in the hard-won insights of ordinary people.

The individuals you will meet in this book aren't household names or celebrities, but rather your grandparents, your neighbors, your teachers. In What's Worth Knowing, these seventy-, eighty-, and ninety-year-olds share the single most important piece of knowledge each has gained through a lifetime of living. Having raised children, made mistakes, survived hardship, and ultimately discovered what truly matters, they've gleaned the secrets of surmounting life's challenges and attaining its joys.

Agnes McDougal, who at ninety-eight can still taste the sweetness of an apple given to her by a stranger on a train when she was seventeen, tells us that "kindness is never wasted." Says Harold Jones, who in seventy-six years has never suffered a lonely moment, "A good listener is someone who's not talking." Having lived more than eight decades in the same small Massachusetts town, Bo Jackson concludes that "someplace else may always seem better, but where nobody knows you, you're nothing." "Knowing you're going to die really gets you moving," realized Arsene St. Amand, who was prompted to find true love at last, six months before his death.

Whether they divulge the connection between honesty and wrinkle-free aging or impart parenting advice gained through raising prize-winning tomatoes, the vibrant voices in What's Worth Knowing express life's universal satisfactions and regrets with unforgettable poignancy and wisdom.

Contents:

On Living Well 9

On People 31

On Time 53

On Spirituality 73

On Marriage 93

On Being Blue 117

On Work 137

On Illness and Frailty 153

On Good Conduct 173

On Regret 197

On Later Life 215.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

1585420719

OCLC:

44732259