Happiness is a choice you make
Subtitle: lessons from a year among the oldest old
By: by John Leland
Series: Thorndike Press large print popular and nonfiction
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 341
ISBN-13: 9781432845810
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Large type books; Happiness in old age; Older people; Conduct of life; Wisdom
Description: An extraordinary look at what it means to grow old and a heartening guide to well-being, Happiness Is a Choice You Make weaves together the stories and wisdom of six New Yorkers who number among the "oldest old"--Those eighty-five and up. In 2015, when the award-winning journalist John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America's fastest-growing age group, he anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment. The reality Leland encountered upended contemporary notions of aging, revealing the late stages of life as unexpectedly rich and the elderly as incomparably wise. Happiness Is a Choice You Make is an enduring collection of lessons that emphasizes, above all, the extraordinary influence we wield over the quality of our lives. With humility, heart, and wit, Leland has crafted a sophisticated and necessary reflection on how to "live better"--informed by those who have mastered the art.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-336).
Table of contents: title: Meet the elders; title: Surprise of a lifetime; title: The paradox of old age; title: Why older means wiser; title: Love in the time of Lipitor; title: On the other hand ...; title: More years, less life?; title: The lessons; title: The lessons of Fred; title: The lessons of Ping; title: The lessons of John; title: The lessons of Helen; title: The lessons of Ruth; title: The lessons of Jonas.