Man, am I glad I bought a new computer with a 24" monitor! Annotated biblios are not for the cute little book-size laptops! Anyone else have at least 4 screens/docs up at one time? Wow! And I still haven't quite figured out how to list a dissertation. That's on my to-do list.
Truly the hardest part of this assignment was settling on a research question. I actually went back to my SNL focus area and concept-mapped that along with my effectiveness. I still have a lot of love for my topic -- How does aging affect women's self-esteem and, ultimately, how can I help. It dawned on me that the passion I have for the topic relates to my personal effectiveness as well. So maybe I can get some solid learning around why I'm bothered by aging, move on and help others.
Once I settled on my question, I was overwhelmed with good stuff. SO no obstacles, except limited monitor size and that darn dissertation !
Chris
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Why be bothered w/ aging?
Both of my parents died this year along w/ a dear friend. My physical abilities continue to deteriate. These expected ends of life (in addition to the incredible sense of loss) surface the question of our own mortality and thus aging.
A friend created the visual of a long park bench when his parents died. They just fell off the bench and the rest of us all scooched down a bit. Us into their spot and our children into ours.
I spent a lot of time last quarter re reading Frankl and trying to better understand the motivation theories. Unfortunately, I have not been able to change my behavior or emotions on the subject.
You would think being 51 w/ a 7 year old - that would "help me stay young". The opposite is often what I allow myself to experience.
Yesterday I was taking Julia to school. The kids were playing football in the playground. The ball went over the fence into the street near where we were walking. I, trying to be the cool parent, retrieved the ball and told the kid inside the fence to go deep. As I went into my Johnny U pose (I wonder how he is aging), my neck snapped - just that little motion of lifting my arm a certain way put me into awful pain and probably two weeks of physical therapy.
These are a few reasons I am bothered w/ aging. However I never used those words until now. I think I have been viewing it as frustrating and physically discomforting. I find I want Julia to know who I was, when I was 40 standing on the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, not who I am now.
I have alot of work in this area. I so looked forward to your findings. Keep me posted.
I found two articles you may be interested in if you haven't come across them yet. One is the dissertation of Gay Leah Swenson - "Watch your toungue young lady!: Words, images and age." (Sorry, but I'm clueless on the proper way to give you the info, but I'll give it a try)
Swenson,G.L. (2005). Watch your tongue, young lady! Words,images and age. Dissertation Abstracts International: Sectin B: The Sciences and Engineering, Vol. 65(7-B),2005.pp.3751
She addresses the personal aging process of women and ways to enable and encourage survival.
The other article -
Edwards,J., & Kieren,D.K. (1998). Educated choices-mid-life women's choicemaking profiles, Canadian Home Economics Journal-Revue,v48,n4,p127-132
This article discusses the expected and unexpected physchological and psychological changes associated w/ aging.
Chris-
I believe the issue of aging upon female self esteem is an important one. I have found the aging process a difficult and painful one.
I'm sure your research will include the impact of living in a society that seems to over value youth ( a 40 year old is defined as aged), whether being single or married has an impact, are those with children more or less effected? It's an important topic in a society with so many aging women.
For me personally, it was the first time a man let a door slam in my face and I became invisible to men in general that I noticed my aging. Then, I had further feelings when men began holding the doors again while calling me young lady or honey because they saw me a aged.
I look forward to hearing what your research reveals.
As far as the new technology.. I spent last week learning Vista and going wireless on my new laptop. My screen is small compared to yours, but Vista makes open files much less difficult to manage than my old XP.
At first I thought that learning new technology in the middle of the class was a mistake. And, it did cause me quite a learning curve , but you're right it's necessary to have many screens going. I'm glad I have the new technology.
Karen
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