Photo Images & Article From The Evening Meeting - July 31, 2013
eBulletin writtin by Bill Paul
Photos by Rick Mendoza
The Bluewater Grill was the location of the evening meeting of the Redondo Beach Rotary Club on Wednesday, July 31, 2013 -
(REDONDO BEACH) July 31, 2013 This week’s meeting was the first evening meeting of the new Rotary year. President Karen Weigel has scheduled three evening meetings altogether. (To see who was there to enjoy the evening, CLICK HERE)
What will you do with the gift of longevity? That was a question posed by our guest speaker this evening, Jaki Scarcello, a South Bay resident who has researched and written about women and aging. Not a bad subject for a Rotary Club, eh? More on her presentation later.
As an evening meeting with the objective of bringing spouses and guests to our function, turnout was pretty good. Altogether 45 folks attended comprised of 33 Rotarians and 12 spouses. They were: Betty Cashin, wife of Pat Cashin; Helen Mendoza, wife of Rick Mendoza; Doug Bailey, husband of Gayle Bailey; Jeff Weigel, wife of President Karen Weigel; Glenna Parker, wife of Jim Parker; Karen Whitehead, wife of Dave Whitehead; Jackie Chen, wife of Jim Chen; Jeanne Peters, wife of Allen Peters; Norma Day, wife of Ron Day; Pam Aspel, wife of Redondo Beach Mayor and Rotarian Steve Aspel; Jeannie Palmer, wife of Terry Tamble
Visiting Rotarians: Jen Tregarthen, Sooner Rotary Club of Norman, Okla.
Meals-on-Wheels: Terry Bichlmeier and Steve Scerra.
Announcements:
August 14, 2013: Govern's visit by District Governor Doug Baker
September 25, 2013: Redondo Beach Police Reserves Awards Banquet
An auction was held for a pair of Hollywood Bowl Tickets for an evening with Tony Bennett. He’s 88 and still going strong. The tickets, offered by Karen and Jeff Weigel, went for $250 to Monique Waite. “The proceeds will go toward school supplies for Redondo Beach students at an August 21st event,” said Karen.
Speaker: Jaki Scarcello, a South Bay resident, gave a presentation about her research into the phenomena of aging from the perspective of women. She is the author of Fifty & Fabulous! The Best Years of a Woman’s Life in which her findings, based on interviews with women in six countries outside the U.S., aged 45 to 102 years of age. “I didn’t want my book to reflect only North American values,” she said, “and I’m not saying that everything about aging is great."
She discussed the theory of "gerotranscendence," a word introduced into gerintology vocabulary by a Swedish researcher into a phenomena of aging. She noted that life expectancy for both men and women increased nearly eight years between 1968 and 2010. "Gerotranscendence asks 'what will you do with the gift of logevity?'"
Among the pearls of wisdom she gleaned from her research: "If we define success as staying young we loose and will not inhabit new stages;" "Age brings us back to elegant wonderment (but with) education and experience, not as youth - uninformed;" "Connectedness to a community of caring friends equals longevity and a sense of purpose - even after 70."
While her research focused on the role of women as they age, she addressed the age-old question of the difference between men and women. The difference, she said, "is that men have no defining moment that aging begins, while women do. For women it is called menopause (and raises the question what will be) their role in life after the biological imperative to reproduce passes. But as men age," she continued, "what happens is their testosterone level declines and their estrogen level increases. So they don't have a defining moment."
She concluded with this wry observation. "Women in their 20's ought to marry men in their 80's because that's when they behave as women want." [Editor's note: Got it Jaki, but as a man, I'm not sure that's how it ought to work out.]
Raffle: It was Chat Campbell’s turn, but alas he did not pick the green marble and only walked away with $10 instead of the $50 in the kitty.