Wendy Lustbader started out as a geriatric social worker and then has spent two decades working with people in their seventies, eighties, nineties, and older. She treasures the bounty of this ongoing dialogue with elders who have wisdom to pass on to other generations. What's Worth Knowing contains vignettes from people she has met in her work along with family, and friends. Here are some of the questions she used:
• "What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you were young?"
• "What advice would you give a young person just starting out in life?"
• "Has anyone in your life taught you a valuable lesson? What was that lesson?"
• "If you could live your life over again, what would you do differently? What would you keep the same?"
The answers to these questions are divided into eleven sections on living well, people, time, spirituality, marriage, being blue, work, illness and frailty, good conduct, regret, and later life. Among the vignettes which touched our hearts or gave us fresh insights into conscious aging were Agnes McDougal's realization that you never forget the goodness some people have done for you; Harold Jones on being a good listener; Giuseppe Maestriami on the attention living things need; Bo Jackson on the advantages of staying put; Viola Burns on relishing the ageless one inside her; and Larry Meyer confessing that life gets better as you get older.
The respect Lustbader lavishes on these elders helps make their observations shine.
