Did you hear the one about collegiate senior living, proudly bad singers, saner wellness, or feeding sheep? 

Better ideas.

Continuing Care Collegiate Community?

As reported in “The Age of Longevity” edition of Time: “’We need a fundamental redesign,’” says John Rowe, professor of health policy and aging at Columbia University’s Aging Center and past chair of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Aging. Rowe is one of several experts looking at the sea change in the “age structure of society” and searching for answers. The research he and others have been doing begins with “reframing seniors … as untapped sources of talent, experience, and social glue.” It reconsiders the “familiar trajectory of learning, work, and retirement,” where, rather than at the beginning, middle and end of life, learning, work and leisure can be intermingled throughout. To meet that objective, one big idea they’ve hit on is to “stretch out education” and plant senior living communities on university campuses.   Full Story >>

Pitch and tune don't matter. Sing!

About 10 years ago, a choir leader and a woman who was stopped from singing when she was 12 (“You are spoiling it for everyone else,” she was told) organized a singing group for tuneless, tone-deaf, non-singers. They expected maybe a dozen for that first gathering. Sixty showed up. And that was the birth of the Tuneless Choir. Given the benefits of singing — improves health, relieves stress and increases lung capacity — and the pure joy evident in their performance, it’s no wonder the Tuneless Choir movement has spread.   Full Story >>

Destress about wellness.

“Between prescriptive plans, complex science and often contradictory advice, it can seem like being healthy is a full-time job – or a hopeless cause.” Dr. Ezekiel J Emanuel says it’s neither. A professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life, Dr. Emanuel “dismantles the ‘wellness industrial complex’ in favor of a few basic, sustainable principles.” His advice for living a good life:

• Intense fitness challenges overdo it, while more movement of all kinds makes sense.

• Solo dining is sad and should be replaced with social dining.

• Tracking stats and habits is out, and regular, extended screen breaks (no-phone Saturdays and such) are in.

• Bigger-than-life wellness focus is so 2020, because hobbies are where it’s at.

• Repetitive daily puzzles should give way to a regular book club.

• Fretting over ultra-processed foods distracts from focusing on nutrition and real food.

• Restriction is out, and — hurray! — pleasure is in.

Dr. Emanual is an “avowed chocoholic.”  Full Story >>

Pa-a-a-aper or pla-a-a-astic?

Recently, “About 50 wayward sheep broke off from their flock and stormed a discount supermarket in a German town.” Dieter Michler, the shepherd, was leading 500 sheep to winter shelter when many were “distracted by acorns” and then presumably followed someone with a bag — which possibly resembled “concentrated feed or a sack of salt” — into the supermarket. According to amused witnesses, “the animals resisted the urge to nibble their way through the fresh produce.” But they made a mess in the drinks section “as their bustling knocked glass bottles and other products from the shelves.” Despite speculation that shepherd Michler would be charged for the damages, the supermarket owner — Penny, which is based in Germany and operates 3,550 stores — decided to seize on the “nationwide media attention and viral posts to say it wanted to sponsor feed for the 50 runaways for a year.”  Full Story >>

Prospects getting distracted and lost on their journey? Rally can help you guide them safely and gently to the sweet, green pastures of residency. Call us.