Science and Music

When I was a child, my parents and my sister argued about the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, a classic trope of generational conflict over taste. Looking back from the third phase of life that family quarrel (which never ever quite resolved itself) and the old line about not knowing art but knowing what you like (arguably first uttered in the New York Times in 1880:" I don't pretend to know much about art; but I know what pleases.") just keep bumping around in my head these days but with a slight variation...now I am thinking I may not know much about science but science sure doesn't know music...or not in any way that is 'helpful' to the human condition.


I love music, love listening to it at my desk, in the car. I listen when I am moody, mellow, anxious or serene. I listen to immerse, to distract, to concentrate and to learn. I learned about music from my parents, who had a floor cabinet stereo system and a few 78s and a lot of 33's. Some of what they liked to play, I still like to listen to: Roy Orbison, Otis Redding and Harry Belafonte. My most consistent musical favourites I acquired through personal exploration in the 1960s and 1970s: Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Leonard Cohen, Neil Young. When I worked at CBC radio, I was constantly learning about new musicians and new genres of music. The list of who I will and do listen to could go on and on. But I fear that some folks are intent on making music about something other than music.

The past few weeks  news feeds and newsites have been filled with stories purporting to make definitive comments on music rooted in 'science,' or, more accurately, in algorithmic analysis, lyric content analysis, suspect on-line surveys and a host of other big data analytic tools  used to make the news equivalent of click bait. The upshot of the 'news' is: Nickleback has or doesn't have 'the smartest lyrics', people stop listening to new music at age 33 (earlier if you are a parent) or don't, pop music is increasingly about advertising, that the biggest changes in music were in the 60s but in 1991...and without doubt there is more to come. Predictably, each time one of these 'studies' was released, the media both old and new when nuts.

What types of music we listen to is often portrayed as one of the key markers between generations, cultural groups, class etc. Who you like to listen to, simply reveling in the joy of performance, composition, sound, meaning and memory, has been turned into a means of division, a matter of separation rather than what it should be: a remarkable defining characteristic of what it means to be human, to be truly alive. As you can probably guess there is even a Buzzfeed quiz that bets it can guess your age by the music you listen to.

Don't get me wrong, there is much that science and music can tell us about the human condition, the idea of memory formation and even how the healthy brain works and the unhealthy one doesn't. In an earlier post, I made mention of Daniel Levitin, the neuroscience and musician who is constantly finding out new things about the brain, music and the link. And that's the science we should be paying attention to, the stuff that elevates us, that makes us think, not the stuff meant to divide and distract.

But the flood of 'news stories' did trigger one nagging thought. You do have to keep finding new music. New sounds, new ways of interpreting life are important and keep the brain working. Just don't fool yourself into thinking that the only 'new music' was music produced yesterday. I am learning more about blues musicians I had never heard of, listening to recordings and performances by people dead before I was born. New is just shorthand for new to you. In that sense new is good. P

Staying Home

Where I live has always mattered to me. I am happiest in a space I can be myself in, a space I can arrange to suit my tastes and needs and the tastes and needs of those I choose to share my life with.

In the Third Phase, questions about home take on new meaning. For those who've had children, there are decisions about "downsizing." For those who've had homes in cities where real estate has jumped in value, there are decisions about selling and moving - "cashing out." But move where? A condo? An apartment? A smaller home in a smaller town? For those who are struggling financially without any secure pension or job there are questions about how to pay for an apartment in tight markets.

But in all those questions there is an assumption that, physically, we can manage our living situations.

Hanging over us all though is the question of what will happen when we can no longer take care of ourselves or, for many, no longer afford rent or property taxes. For some those question have to be faced earlier in life than expected; for others they are made in a rush after a fall or the discovery of a disease. Few of us want to think about our final home, but in the back of our minds, even the minds of jogging, fit and disease-free third-phasers looms the last phase of life decision about a home where we will receive care and respect.

That's why it terrifying to hear news about abuses in homes for seniors or stories, like the one from Quebec, that Andre Picard so chillingly analyzed, about whether more than one bath a week is a luxury requiring extra, black market payments.

In the United States it's predicted that by 2035 those over 65 will make up 20 per cent of the population. The fastest growing demographic group there is now over 85. The Conference Board of Canada says this country's senior population will double in the next 25 years. Where will all those people live and how they will all be cared for, especially those without means to afford private care?

For our third phase we chose to get out of the city and settle in a house in a small, beautiful town. We chose a house that works for us now - much of it is on one level, has enough space for us to have offices to work from home in and a garden for me to indulge my need to get my hands dirty. So far it has proved the right decision for us. We did try to think ahead too: we have a house that we should be able to manage for at least 15 years or, fingers crossed, twenty.

But as I climb ladders to put on screens or dig a hole for a new fruit tree I wonder if this house will be manageable for that long. And if not, hope that we can carefully select the additional costs we will have to make to get things done. And hope, we get governments who will offer assistance to stay in our home. I want to pick the fruits (pear, cherry, paw-paw) of my labours.

When my mother lost her mobility she continued living for a time in the town house my father and she had bought after selling their highly needy, old farm house. A nurse from the Victorian Order of Nurses came to help her with her bath and hygiene. She had no wish for her children to visit just to bathe her and found the nurse a comfort. Then when she knew that wasn't enough she moved herself into a home with care.

And that's what I want too - to stay in our house as long as possible and to not be a burden on our single child with a busy life of her own just trying to get by.

So the option of "aging in place," appeals to me immensely. And I'm not alone. It's what most seniors want. But it takes foresight, luck, money and a government willing to include that option in it's wheelhouse of how to help the aged. Sure, we'll need well-inspected private and public care facilities and lots of them but letting the old live as independently as they can needs to be a real, well-assisted possibility. D

The "Luxury" of Retirement

Whether or not the Third Phase of life is a positive or negative experience depends on a lot of different things, not the least of which is money or as the bankers like to say "financial security." Worrying about money happens during every phase of life in varying ways and to different degrees, but worrying about money in the Third Phase is becoming both a deeply important personal issue and a very compelling public policy argument. In recent weeks, the issue of the financial independence of older citizens has been the subject of financial reports, political worrying, class anxiety and really snarky ill-informed commentary. 

In a new study by HSBC a stark reality was laid out: "half of Canadians either plan to ease into retirement by working reduced hours before hanging it up for good or have no plans to ever quit."Now we can argue about the methodology of the survey but the reality is that lack of resources to retire has long been a concern of planners. A year ago the news was just as grim: “I think there’s a broad consensus that we are heading for a retirement income crisis,” said Murray Gold, managing partner at Koskie Minsky law firm, and a pension specialist who advises the Ontario Federation of Labour. “Two-thirds of the workforce doesn’t have any pensions, and the kinds of pensions we have aren’t as good as they were 20 years ago." The positive spin on the idea of never retiring is that some people like to keep working for the love of working but what is increasingly true is that for many people staying in the work force is not a choice. And when no choice is involved the consequences are very real, nasty and divisive to all of society. As one U.S. publication argued: "One of the cruellest manifestations of widening inequality happens in life's final quarter." Some people spend more on their funerals than many people have to spend on a year of retirement. 

There are increasing signs that this 'income crisis' being experienced by older citizens is having an impact on politics. Last month's Canadian budget held real treats for older voters, not so much younger ones. If voters are poor retirees, policy decisions will be skewed both in the short term and the long term. And it is not just politics that will be warped. Policy planners are trying to figure out just what"Delaying Retirement Means For Younger Workers." Here's the bottom line concern: the longer older people remain in the work force the harder it is for younger workers to advance in the workplace, the harder it is for young people to build families, and futures and to even consider their own retirement. And this is not just a problem affecting the old and the young but it is also squeezing hard on the generation in the middle. One of the best places for keen analysis and interesting perspective is Generation Squeeze, a new and intriguing lobby group. As they like to say: 

Under 49 and feeling squeezed? You’re not alone, and governments are failing to adapt.

These are tough issues and ill-informed commentary doesn't help. Margaret Wente at the Globe and Mail has lept into the fray or hopped onto the bandwagon of questioning "senior discounts" arguing that seniors are wealthy and don't deserve the breaks from corporations or government. The reality is that she and the Institute for Research on Public Policy are just ignoring the truth that many seniors lack the wealth Wente has and giving breaks to different groups of citizens is historically the to and fro that makes society work. Seniors pay property taxes so schools are funded and seniors get help with snow removal because of obvious physical realities. Everyone benefits and to suggest otherwise is wrong and shit-disturbing at the lowest level.

We need a discussion that helps us navigate the real economic conditions of all levels of society. Not one-offs intended to simply pit different generations against each other. P

Embracing My Wrinkles

So I read about this woman who hasn't laughed or smiled in forty years, even at the birth of her child. Not because she's depressed. Not because they told her to wipe the smile off her face at the Catholic school she attended as a girl. No. She made a conscious decision in her youth to keep emotions from her face because they caused wrinkles, trained herself to show no reactions. And at fifty her face, the story goes, does look surprisingly young.

But, really, are we as women that worried about wrinkles?

Yes, we are. So worried the New York Times did "an in-depth report" on the subject. So worried we inject ourselves, lift our skin and slather our faces with products touted to smooth out those creases, plump up that aging, drying skin. And globally we spend a trillion dollars or so on treatments and anti-aging products even though over and over we're told the cost isn't worth it and the sales pitches are often lies.

And it's not just our faces. There's even a bra women can wear to bed that combats cleavage wrinkles in their sleep.

On the face of it, women look like dupes. But can we be blamed? While men with wrinkles still seem vital and even attractive, wrinkled women seem plain old and used-up. I remember a friend saying that after menopause women just dry up. That horrifying image stayed with me.

Is it any wonder that the sickly-sweet saying, "wrinkles should merely indicate were smiles have been," came from a man, Mark Twain?

Is it any less of a wonder that women try to diminish, eradicate and cover up our wrinkles.We may be the generation that breaks stereotypes of aging but the marketers will be able to play on women's insecurities about wrinkles for some time yet. I'm smart enough to know there really isn't much I can do to slow time but my bathroom drawer is full of creams and serums nonetheless. I buy into those exaggerated sales pitches all the time, hoping someone, this time, has found the magic elixir.

Grey hair I am learning to accept. But wrinkles. I still can't get there.

There are, of course a limited number of practical steps we can take to keep our faces smooth - stop smoking (easy for me: I never really smoked), drink lots of water (I like water) and stay out of the sun (harder: I like the feel of sun on my skin and sometimes find sunscreens irritating.)

But where my love of life trumps my vanity is at the idea I would stop laughing and smiling. Good God. What would be the point? So I say thanks to the woman who never smiled or laughed. Maybe by laughing out loud at her I'm taking my first step to acceptance.

While I learn to love me wrinkles, to see them as Mark Twain saw his I'm not above taking joy at the story that scientists have developed a chocolate that will make my skin look younger. Eating chocolate sounds just about right: if it doesn't make me look younger at least it will improve my mood. D

Paying Attention: Vital and Hard to do

A while back I wrote about how things that matter take time, take energy. It goes without saying, or does it, that things that matter demand attention as well. And paying attention is more difficult than we realize, more complicated than expected and more connected to a meaningful life then we ever could have imagined.

The reality is that we don't really multi-task, we do one thing at a time and we switch from one thing to another. Each switch requires real physical energy in the brain and that is tiring and draining. As with any activity, the more energy you have the more you can do and unfortunately energy levels often correlate with age. So maybe in your thirties you could juggle more things than you can in your fifties. The key here, as with many things, is to calm down and keep perspective. Luckily perspective is out there.

Daniel Levitin, neuroscientist and musician at McGill University, knows a lot about how the mind works and first hit the big time as an 'Academic Superstar' with his popular science books and articles on the brain and music. His latest work on making sense of thinking in a world of information overload is smart, clear and a good overview of how our lives have changed with the explosion of information and stimuli that we now all experience daily.

But Levitin is interested in doing more than just explain. Ever since the book was published he's been on the road and on the net trying to explain to people how to take control of their attention. He likes to talk about experiments done 50 years ago and more recently about how many things we can 'keep in mind at once' and the reality is maybe 4, maybe 5. He uses a fantastic example. You are coming through the door, with mail, groceries, a coat to hang up and the keys in your hand. That's already five things and your phone rings. Something will go astray and if you are like me you will be cursing yourself about forgetting something as important as where you put your keys. You are not 'having a senior moment;' you are coping with reality.

I find the guy truly stimulating and comforting. His explanation of how the brain works is very accessible. His understanding of how to parse out the process of decision-making is simple to follow. His approach and perspective is something we could all use at every moment of our day.

He is worth checking out: as a great talk, as a good interview, as is a nice top ten tips. But check out his book as well. If we are going to be awash in information, it is good to make sure some of it is totally useful. P

Putting an End to This Winter

It is Easter Weekend and the weather is right on the edge of being truly spring and I am so anxious, so eager to be able to wander to my porch, my deck, a patio and simply enjoy a coffee with the sun beaming down and a light breeze messaging that winter is truly done.

When I was young I never understood the annual migration of 'snow-birds'. The idea that one would travel simply to escape weather, as opposed to exploring, discovering  or experiencing the unknown seemed strange and indulgent. Well, as they say, times change and opinions evolve. Over the past 15 years I have learned that knocking the heart out of winter somewhere warm is good for me, and not just because walking in snow and ice is a struggle. My body feels better, my mind relaxes, my mood soars at the feel of warmth in icy January or freezing February.

About a decade ago, Debi and I travelled to Death Valley from Toronto in March. It was bitterly cold at home but about 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Las Vegas. We picked up our rental car and headed to a Traders' Joe for supplies before heading out to the desert. We saw a Starbucks and stopped for a coffee. We sat outside with no coats and sighed heavily as we drank our tall bolds. I was hooked. And it is an addiction I never want to escape. Ever since that coffee epiphany, we have tried to ensure that some of the winter is simply escaped, and it has been worth every penny to do so.

Last weekend, we were at a winery and one of the wine makers was talking about how brutal February had been on the vines. The temperature at one point at reached minus 29 and some vineyards lost nearly 60 % of their vines. He looked at us and said grape vines were never intended to experience minus 29...we looked at each other and we both knew that humans were never meant to either and these two humans would do everything in their power not to.

The Niagara Escarpment is starting to look fuzzy from a distance, a sure sign that the trees are starting to bud, most of the snow is gone, grass is greening and there is a sense of nature stirring. We are heavily into talk about trees to plant and plants to dig up. We try to live in the moment. We do. Revelling in the unfolding of spring and summer is the priority but I am no fool. The year is cyclical, winter will return and so, a few minutes at the end of each day are spent contemplating and planning where we will be next February.

Is Grey Really the New Blonde?

Whew! I feel so much better. Actor Antonio Banderas says it's okay for women to get old. And's it unfair older actresses are pushed aside by young beauties.

Combine that with the news that grey is the new blonde - or is it the new black? - and things are looking up. Even young women are dying their hair grey. (Gray for my American friends.) Because grey hair is now cool. Actresses like Jamie Lee Curtis, Judi Dench and Helen Mirren are becoming role models for beauty. Even Lady Gaga, never one to miss a trend, has played with grey.

"Gray hair becoming a hot look for 2015," claims The Province Journal. They open the article talking about Joan Didion's appearance with her "chalk-white hair" in a spring advertising campaign for Celine. I never thought I'd live to see the name, Joan Didion, and the phrase, hot look, in the same article. Of all the adjectives I can come up with to describe one of my favourite writers  - brilliant, haunting, meticulous, fragile - hot has never been one of them.

Then Joni Mitchell, with her long white hair, was chosen as the new face of Saint Laurent. She does look kind of hot. And she's always been cool.

It's not surprising two French companies are behind this. The French with their love of women "of a certain age," are far less restrictive when it comes to standards for female beauty.

On my pessimistic days, I see this whole "grey hair is cool thing," as a trend in the fleeting meaning of the word; on my good days, as as a trend in the developing, changing meaning of the word.

I do hope it's the latter. I remember seeing both my grandmother and my mother in the last days of their lives, their white roots spreading wider on top of their dyed hair. They were both highly intelligent women; accomplished for their eras. But neither could accept grey hair even after they were eighty. So I promised myself I'd never be that woman, worrying about her hair colour to the end.

But I have worried about my grey hair, which started in my 30s, and I've done my share of hair dyes and henna rinse.. Grey hair has always seemed just another sign that it's time to ignore a woman. I'd like to think my grey hair is a sign of achievement, not coolness, a sign that I am older and wiser and live with more equanimity. And I'd like to believe others are starting to see it that way too.

I guess in the words of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, I want to see it as a sign I'm "pro-aging,"and so is it the world. D

Addendum: A reader pointed out the Julia Louis-Dreyfus advertises for Clairol so maybe she's not the best person to go around taking about accepting her age. And by the way, I'm still ambivalent about going grey and understand why other women are too. Just hope one day any woman who wants to go grey can do so without all the baggage. Oh, and I was being sarcastic about Antonio - don't believe him for a moment. D