It’s funny how I came upon this realization – it was through my treadmill. Okay, not literally through my treadmill, but because I was ready for my daily tread on it and had pretty much exhausted everything I wanted to listen to on my iPod. So I snapped on the TV for something to watch while spending an hour walking nowhere. News being what it is today, I decided I couldn’t walk fast enough to get away from anything they were airing and quickly switched to the next channel. As it happened, the show was Daily Café on Retirement Living TV. I didn’t even know this channel existed, I’m ashamed to say.

They were talking about keeping elderly parents or grandparents vital and active once they moved into retirement.

This day they had a wonderful grandmother cooking up something in what was obviously her own kitchen, so I just had to watch more. As it turned out, it was a podcast done by Bubbe’s grandson Avrom and featured her at home in her kitchen cooking kosher. Feed Me, Bubbe. What fun! This was followed by various celebrities who related their stories of getting their older family members active on the computer.

For most of the people past 65, just the thought of buying a new computer gives them hives. But to actually start something like a blog or to join a message board or chat room was, to quote them, way too hard to do. “Something for young people, but not them.” They had learned how to bank online and shop online – why not enter the world of blogging? Why were they intimidated by this aspect of computer use? Have we perpetuated those feelings?

So I took it upon myself to seek out some of the more adventuresome post-65-year-olds who had leaped into the fray so to speak, and was amazed at just how many there are. And how damn good they are too! No longer is blogging a world completely dominated by gossip mongers or people with axes to grind. We are now joined by people of experience. People who aren’t drawing from books to talk about what happened 50 years ago, but instead were actually there when it happened and lived it. Blogs like Welcome to Katalusis by Virginia Bergman, a wonderful site filled with warmth and insight.