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June 30, 2008, marked the last column in paper form for Aging Deliberately. Given continuing financial troubles, The Seattle Times cancelled my column – almost fourteen years to the day (July 4, 1994) from when I started.

This isn’t the final word from me, though. Thanks to the Internet, I’ve launched a new generation of Aging Deliberately columns, available by email as a paid subscription newsletter for just $12 a year. It will have the same practical, honest information about aging that readers loved in my columns in The Seattle Times and Kitsap Sun.

But now there will be more space to experiment, add other people’s opinions and voices, respond to more of your questions, tell you about innovative workshops that I and others are putting on – and other things I don’t even know about yet.

Why Not Free?
People ask: why are you charging, when most things on the Internet are free? As I’ve written, “free” is one of the worst things that ever happened to the aging field –  “free” is why so many elder services are poor quality; “free” is why you get only part of the truth about some things – because the sponsor taints the message; “free” is why the aging field has been so slow to improve.

Much of the “free” information that’s on the Internet is questionable, and I predict there will be more problems in the future. The reality is, you get what you pay for. Well-researched, high quality information has value. I’m gambling that you’ll appreciate the quality of information you’ll read in this newsletter and subscribe.

However, for those of you who aren’t familiar with my columns, I offer a one-time, one-month free subscription to the e-newsletter.  You’ll be required to use Paypal to initiate it. After the first month, if we haven’t heard from you to cancel, Paypal will charge your credit card $12 for the year. I’m sorry we can’t do this via checks, but we don’t have the capacity, labor-wise.  

Perhaps some day there will be advertising to offset the price – but not in the beginning.

So What Will You Get?
Like my columns, this Aging Deliberately newsletter will feature a “new take” on aging – not the pity party or saccharine happy times you see in much of the media. Each of us is living longer than ever before in history, and there are serious challenges ahead. Individually, we have much to learn to do it right. Collectively, because there are so many of us growing older at once, it will change our society forever – for the good if we wake up and start to prepare. The choice is ours. It’s time to age gracefully, with as much control over what happens to us as possible. That means doing it with our eyes wide open – deliberately.

That’s what this newsletter will be about – ideas that will transform the way we think about our aging and the way we age, as well as care for the people we love.

The mechanics
The newsletter will come to you every other Monday in your email, starting August 4, 2008. In time, perhaps, it will be weekly. A year’s subscription is $12, payable by check (that you can mail to me) or credit card (via Paypal). To use your credit card on PayPal, you do not need to have a special account - just use your credit card. There will be no newsletter in December.

During your first month, enjoy the newsletter for free, as a trial. If you don't want to continue, click the "unsubscribe" button on the bottom of the email. If you do wish to continue, your credit card will be charged the $12 membership rate after the end of your free month.

Just like in my newspaper columns, you’ll read about:

•    Preparing for your own aging
•    Finding the right care services for you or someone you love
•    The changes our society needs as nearly 80 million boomers grow old
•    Living in a home that allows you to “age in place”
•    Talking to your parents about moving
•    Dealing with someone who hoards (no, it’s not a left-over behavior from the Depression)
•    Learning how to assess an older person’s needs to find the services they need,
•    And more

My first column over a decade ago started quietly. It took a while to catch on, but when it did, it went national, then international. Now it’s morphing into a new form.

Aging has long been the “thing” we want most to avoid, deny, surgically change. Well, you can hide but you can never get younger. I hope this newsletter will get more of us into an “aging deliberately” mindset, facing our lives – at whatever age we are – with control and purpose. Please join me today in taking this exciting new step.