In the early 1970s, not long out of medical school at the University of Kansas, I took my first medical post in a small town on the plains of northwest Kansas. Norton was supposed to be a stepping stone—a place to gain experience and save money before my residency in Seattle. Little did I know that instead of starting a career, I was finding my calling. Family medicine … [Read more...]
The Admiral Who Came Back at Sixty
When machines take over more of our work, the question of what we do with our hours becomes personal. A father looks at the women around him and sees the answer. In 1966 the United States Navy retired a commander named Grace Hopper. She was 60, and by any ordinary measure her working life was complete. She had programmed the Harvard Mark I during the Second World War, … [Read more...]
Solo Travel at 75 and the Courage to Stay Curious
Selected passages from To the End of the World60 days alone through South America At seventy-five, I traveled alone through South America. Some people saw it as a crisis. For me, it was the opposite: proof that I was still hungry for life. From the glaciers of Patagonia to the Galapagos Islands, I encountered vast landscapes, unexpected kindness, exhaustion, uncertainty … [Read more...]
The Beauty Found in Rewriting Life’s Script in My 50s
I always pegged myself as someone who was going to follow a perfectly scripted plan for my life. Oh, how wrong I was After graduating college with honors, I paid my dues in television news and ultimately landed my dream job as a morning anchor in my hometown of Denver. A few years later, my husband and I welcomed healthy boy-girl twins into our lives. I was often … [Read more...]
The Notion of Time Travel Has Always Fascinated Me
My appetite for reading about places where historic things happened, and then getting the chance to stand in those very places myself is insatiable. I’m always up for a good time slip, but I want to go really far back. I was into the Tudors long before Netflix existed, and I’ve been known to rabbit my way down any hole that brings me closer to William Shakespeare. I’d be … [Read more...]