Open Mind, Open Heart
THERE’S NO MAGIC FORMULA FOR LIVing longer and better. But a certain character trait makes getting older a lot more rewarding: having an open mind and heart.
Just ask David Starbuck of Chestertown, New York; Shirley Uekert of Marathon, Wisconsin; or Dave Jackson of Fishers, Indiana. These three very different people in their sixties, seventies and eighties live every day with the highs and lows of aging.
They thrive through it all by learning.
David, an archeologist, continues digging up military history in upstate New York despite a diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer.
Shirley, a farm wife whose husband died several years ago, defied a lifelong fear of water and learned to swim in her seventies.
Dave is a retired pharmaceutical chemist who spent much of his life in a quiet, orderly laboratory—then plunged into acting not long after his own cancer diagnosis.
All three told me it is never
