Masters Tennis

When I turned 80, we went to a warm place with my brother, his family, and ours. One of my then 6-year-old grandaughters crawled onto my lap and whispered in my ear “Happy Birthday, Gampy. I am going to miss you.” Every celebration is a mourning, and vice versa.

You don’t need more ideas.

You need smarter ways to share the ones you already have.

The biggest shift we can make as we get older is expanding what we think is possible. Learning doesn’t stop at some arbitrary age; if anything, it speeds up.

Aging has given me a more nuanced appreciation for the miracle of life. My own, of course, but that of humanity itself. I am amazed at being alive today with 8.2 billion other souls…up from 2.3 billion the year I was born.

• Ken Miller

Kafka announced to us long ago that the meaning of life is that it stops.

When the committee is unanimous, it’s unlikely that the idea is a brilliant one.

Significant division and strong opinions (and widespread skepticism) don’t cause great ideas, but they’re often present when they arrive.

Frustration means you’re on the verge of a breakthrough.

It’s evidence of an internal recalibration,

a sign that your expectations have evolved,

and that the person you were yesterday is no longer good enough for the player you are trying to become.

Keep going—what feels like struggle is just the final step before an upgrade.

-Conor Casey

There is a gutter filled with dead ideas and rotting biases like misogyny and racism and ageism running all along the side streets and alleyways of our culture. Get your mind out of it.

• Valerie Monroe