"If I had thought Lost in Space would still be running 50 years later, I would've renegotiated my residuals." – Bill Mumy
In September 1965, Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs were scandalizing the airwaves with "Woolly Bully." (Herman's Hermits had more songs charting than the Beatles, which is just, well, wrong.) Willie Mays hit his 500th home run, the first major leaguer to do so. The word "hippie" first appeared in print, in the San Francisco Examiner. The Soviet Union launched its first nuclear-powered satellite. In Gemini 5, astronauts Gordon Cooper and Pete Conrad had just negotiated the first space "rendezvous" with an unmanned test module.
And the "Space Family Robinson" embarked on their ill-fated trip to Alpha Centauri aboard the Jupiter II spacecraft…Wednesday nights on CBS.
Will Robinson shares a pensive moment with the B-2 Robot, operated by Bob May and voiced by Dick TufeldThe original "Lost in Space" was set only 32 years in the future, a clear reflection of the infectious optimism for the U.S. space program at the time. The crew included a family of five, a "dreamy" young pilot, one robot and one stowaway saboteur, the enigmatic "Dr. Smith." (The robot was the only regular character that required two actors: Bob May manipulated the accordion arms from inside the contraption and voice was provided by Dick Tufeld, who also provided the show's narration.)
'Danger, Will Robinson!' 
But the real driver of the show was "Billy Mumy," whose precocious pre-teen character survives repeated harrowing encounters. The warnings from his robot companion remain a pop-culture phrase today: "Danger, Will Robinson!" (Mumy and the robot had similar résumés. Both appeared in episodes of "Lost in Space" and "The Twilight Zone.")
"Will Robinson is definitely a character that's continued to stay alive inside me. I'm grateful that I was a part of all those shows, and yeah, I don't cringe when I see them."
The original series is still "out there," streaming on Amazon Prime. Mumy did a two-episode cameo in the 2018 Netflix reboot, this time playing Dr. Smith. No spoilers. Mumy carved nearly an hour out of one of his busy days recently, to talk about his acting career and the current focus on his "adult passion." His responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Next Avenue: What is it like watching yourself in these shows through the lens of the 69-year-old "Billy?"
Bill Mumy: If I had thought "Lost in Space" would still be running 50 years later, I would've renegotiated my residuals. Will Robinson is definitely a character that's continued to stay alive inside me. I'm grateful that I was a part of all those shows, and yeah, I don't cringe when I see them. But also, and I have to be honest, I very rarely watch, you know, Billy Mumy on TV or anything like that. I don't think my grandchildren have ever seen "Lost in Space" or any of that stuff. And my kids didn't watch that stuff. Let's put it to you this way. I think there's plenty of stuff that I did that they would enjoy not even knowing that that was me.
The camp aspects of "Lost in Space" have probably helped its durability. Was that intentional?
It was really a combination of CBS mandating to [producer] Irwin Allen to lighten up, and Jonathan Harris, who played "Dr. Smith," seizing the opportunity to bring comedy into his character, who was originally a very serious, nefarious saboteur. He didn't think that if he had continued to play it that way, or if it had continued to be written that way, that he'd be around for long. So, I mean, things just happen. I mean, we were on the air a year before "Star Trek," and then people always compare the two. It's so weird to me. It's like they don't compare "The Rifleman" to "Gunsmoke" but they compare "Lost in Space" to "Star Trek."
"Lost in Space" debuted in the very early years of "manned" space flight. Have you considered what kind of influence it might've had on a generation of Baby Boomers?
I know that it inspired countless youngsters to go into the space program or go into science. I know that because I've been to NASA, I've been invited to these launches and shuttle landings and all sorts of events where people shared that when they were kids watching Will Robinson, that inspired them to go into those fields. So that's very flattering.
Bill Mumy and his wife EileenI don't know if "Lost In Space" was responsible for a plethora of other, you know, campy comedy sci-fi television projects or films, but I do know that it was pretty much the first – it was certainly the original series – the first 30 hours or so – which were black and white, were very much focused on an adventure show set in the arena of unknown alien worlds.
As we've written on Next Avenue, you also appeared in three episodes of the original "Twilight Zone," which might've fixed your place in early sci-fi television. What strikes you most about that show from an actor's perspective?
"The Twilight Zone" has been a never-ending blessing of continuous questions and reflections.
If you look at the character actors that were used throughout that whole era, you don't see this never-ending stream of Ken-and-Barbies. You see really interesting faces and you see and watch really good character actors. Whereas in a television series with a regular cast, you get into a comfort zone. I'm not saying that there wasn't great work on other shows; there was, but if you're Matt Dillon and Kitty and Festus (on "Gunsmoke") you're just grooving. You know what to do. It's kind of easy. You're making big money, and maybe that affects what the audience sees. But the fact that there were no regular cast members on "The Twilight Zone," with the exception of Rod Serling – I think that played a big part in keeping it fresh.
You appear to have made one of the smoother transitions from big success as a child actor into adult roles and other pursuits.
I couldn't have had an easier transition, and I couldn't have felt more secure in that. I mean, I went straight from "Lost in Space" into starring in a Disney film called "Rascal" [based on the Sterling North novel]. That's a nice film. And that was like, 14 weeks' work or something. And then I did "Bless the Beasts and the Children." [Mumy appears as a teenager in this confrontational promo for the 1971 Stanley Kramer film.] And after Beasts, I chose to take about two years off because I was in this band that I felt I wanted to give a hundred percent to. And we were recording and gigging a lot.
"I mean, there's no horror story in the Billy Mumy child-acting thing. I simply wanted to step back for a while."
I had been working from the age of five nonstop with no complaints. Nobody had forced me into it. I wasn't having a bad time. My parents invested my earnings for me. I mean, there's no horror story in the Billy Mumy child-acting thing. I simply wanted to step back for a while. Then when I returned I found that I didn't particularly enjoy the whole process as much as I had, but I never didn't like it – just, the luster had dulled a bit for me, and music was my adult passion.
Music continues to be your main pursuit these days. What three musicians – living or dead – would you like to have dinner with?
That's an interesting question. I think it would be easier to answer if it was like, "Who do I want to collaborate with?" But sitting around a table and having conversations, I'm gonna go with Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson and Jim Morrison.
There seems to be a common thread there, as they all share a kind of poetic genius.
Well, I think [Morrison, of The Doors] was a brilliant poet. I think he would have been an eventual brilliant filmmaker. I love his poetry. I think he diminished within the framework of The Doors after four years or so. And I think that had he lived a longer life, yeah. He would've contributed a lot of really interesting things.
I've known Brian [Wilson] for 50 years, I've played with Brian's band on stage. I've hung out with Brian backstage and I'm close to several people in his band that have been very protective of him for the last 20-some years. Yeah, he's a hard one to figure out. But he's a gift. And nobody can top his harmonic structure and his chord progressions. They're just one of a kind, you know. There's the "Pet Sounds" and the [unreleased Beach Boys album] "SMiLE" stuff that is so complex and so modular and so unique and so brilliant. But then there's the Beach Boys love-you stuff that is so primal and so stripped down and so childlike, but so warm and honest.
Your new album, "Illuminations," kind of takes your own work and life full-circle, in a collaboration with Paul Gordon that goes back to 1968, that actually dips back into material you wrote at that time.
There's one song on this record that we wrote in 1968 and it may be the best song on the record. But yeah, that's an interesting process, man. Thankfully, we recorded all these things back when we were kids. So the source material was there but we never finished those songs. 
All of the songs on this album are a melding of real naive, innocent, uncompromising young songwriters with two guys who have been in the professional music business for a long time and finished things from a very mature professional perspective. So the melding of young and old and innocent and mature is a very viable part of these 12 songs. And yeah. It's been a lot of fun.
Sounds like you have few, if any, regrets.
An audience has a very difficult time taking you out of the frame that they've originally put you in, or you put yourself in. And that's understandable. That's been somewhat frustrating for me. But, you know, I've been able to lead an uncompromised artistic life, and that's a blessing.
Even more Mumy: Mumy's recent autobiography is "Danger, Will Robinson: The Full Mumy." In 2021 he and Lost in Space co-star Angela Cartwright co-authored a memoir about the "Lost in Space" years. He also produces and hosts The Real Good Radio Hour, a weekly internet radio series exploring various styles of music and the artists who pioneered them.



'Will Robinson' Is in No Danger

Craig Miller

You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound <smashing glass>, a dimension of sight. A dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into … The Twilight Zone.  – Rod Serling, Preamble to Season 5 Episodes
Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling, 1963.Sixty years ago this month, one of the most enduring products of television's "golden age" began its final season in first-run. When creator Rod Serling wrote his already iconic prologue, he never dreamed, even in his fertile imagination, that his "Twilight Zone" would become, in his own words, "as timeless as infinity."
"I think that 'The Twilight Zone' is the best anthology television series ever made." 
And yet, more than a half-century later, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who's advanced past their teenage years who hasn't seen or at least heard of "The Twilight Zone." We've all had "Twilight Zone moments" and the haunting DOO-doo-DOO-doo theme (introduced in Season 2) will, it seems, forever be synonymous with the weird and unworldly.
But creator Rod Serling's scripts went way beyond weird, which many believe is the key to the show's durability.
"I think that 'The Twilight Zone' is the best anthology television series ever made," says Bill Mumy, who, as a nine-year-old, starred with Jack Klugman in the premiere episode of that final season, "In Praise of Pip" (credited as Billy Mumy).
Now 69, Mumy, of course, went on to become "Will Robinson" in another iconic series from the '60s, "Lost in Space." But "TZ" — and the three episodes he appeared in — have a singular place in his memory. Ask Mumy for his favorite episode and he'll have trouble narrowing it down to one. But "To Serve Man" stands out for him, a perennial favorite in which hypercephalic aliens of NBA stature woo Earthlings into tourist flights to their home planet; flights from which no one seems to return.
Episodes Stand the Test of Time 
"Rod Serling's scripts, they've certainly stood the test of time," he says. "They hold up beautifully as not only little morality plays, but reflections on the society at the time that still resonate powerfully today in many themes."
Among the most stark and timely examples of this is an episode from the very first season, titled "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." In this case the antagonists are aliens, who use simple devices such as selective power failures to trigger fear and violence in a suburban neighborhood. Serling's spoken epilog couldn't be more relevant today:
Bill Mumy, at age 7, as Anthony Fremont"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices – to be found only in the minds of men," Serling intones over the show's signature backdrop of winking stars. "For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own — for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined … to the Twilight Zone."
If some of Serling's teleplays came off as "preachy," he clearly didn't care. As his daughter, Anne Serling, 68, recalls in her 2013 memoir, her father once told an audience in Washington, D.C. that, "The writer's role is to menace the public's conscience."
Walking Distance 
But ask a boomer with a nostalgia bent and they're likely to tell you their favorite episode is one from the very first season.
"'Walking Distance,' undoubtedly," says author Tony Albarella, without hesitation. Albarella, 54, isn't quite old enough to have seen the show in first-run. Nonetheless he has published more than 100 of Serling's scripts in a series of books. He also serves as vice president of the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation, based in Serling's boyhood town of Binghamton, New York. (Next year, the foundation will unveil a statue of Serling in Binghamton.)
In "Walking Distance," Gig Young portrays a harried ad man who enters a time warp where he's able to see himself as a boy in his hometown. Albarella says nostalgia was a Serling hallmark.
"A lot of his work featured nostalgia and characters that were seeking their past and had a longing for the past, like he did," notes the author. "And a lot of his most personal work comes out in that kind of writing … some of the most evocative writing he ever did."
"A lot of his work featured nostalgia and characters that were seeking their past and had a longing for the past, like he did." 
Albarella believes the nostalgic element of Serling's work is one reason for its enduring appeal among older viewers. "I've had children of my own and now they're adults," says Albarella, revealing a very personal connection to the story in "Walking Distance." "And to be able to go back and either change regrets or just interact again one last time with these people of your past … even if they're in your life, they're not around the same way. And it's especially poignant when they're gone."
In the six decades since "The Twilight Zone" winked out from the CBS Friday night schedule, several "reboots" have been attempted — most short-lived, none with the same resonance as the original, which, Albarella sums up as "lightning in a bottle."
Moral Outrage 
"'The Twilight Zone' launched during the Eisenhower era, which was a time of great conformity, consumerism, isolationism in a lot of ways," he recalls. "It went right through the rise and fall of Kennedy's Camelot. In that short five-year period, it spans and reflects the cultural upheaval of that period in America."
Anne Serling writes that "among my father's moral and philosophical outrages were the Holocaust and the American civil rights struggle." But he often had to disguise his antagonists as space aliens or even the Devil himself, to avoid being stifled by networks and sponsors.
The carousel at Recreation Park in Binghamton was a nostalgic touchstone for Serling. It still operates today."History is just so cyclical, and our problems and our strengths are so much a part of who we are as mankind," notes Albarella. "It really does not change, it just finds voice and expression in different ways at different points."
"It's one thing to be able to make people laugh," says Mumy. "Hey, Mel Brooks at 96 – I mean, that's a wonderful gift. But if you have the power to make people think about doing the right thing and think about their perspective within the planet or within the galaxy, it's a bigger thing. And that's what Rod Serling was able to bring to us." (Check here for various streaming services currently offering "The Twilight Zone.")
Today Mumy has added accomplished musician and memoirist to his acting credentials. He lives in the same house in Laurel Canyon that he's called home for 50 years. But he's never entirely shed his most famous (and creepy) Twilight Zone role, that of Anthony Fremont, a clairvoyant boy with mystical and frightening powers, which he used to enforce his own childlike brand of morality, sending adult malcontents to a presumably purgatory limbo in "the Cornfield."
"I've never let — let's say Anthony has never let me go," Mumy admits. "Yeah. I carry Anthony around with me. He'll pop up at the strangest times." 
He can still do a convincing recreation of the menacing big-eyed stare that accompanied Anthony's own form of moral outrage. "There's times when I believe I can read your thoughts," he says. "If I don't like you, I'll send you to the Cornfield."


Sixty Years On, We Still Can't Quit 'The Twilight Zone'

Here we go again, our five-year-old granddaughter Lucia and I, playing together and getting all physical. You name it, we'll do it: skip through a park, climb hills in her backyard, jump over puddles along the sidewalk, wrestle on the floor. And that's only a single morning. Soon I'll be ready for a long nap.
Susan Smithlin's husband Jack playing T-ball with their grandsonIt's a given that teaming up for physical activity with your grandchildren is good for your health. Recent research suggests as much, too, though the topic remains little studied. One study showed that half of grandparents who directly interacted with grandchildren were more likely to be alive five years later than those who remained uninvolved. Another study concluded that grandparents who watched their grandchildren scored higher on cognitive tests than those who never did.
"My time with my grandchildren revolves around play. We make it fun, rather than competitive, and everyone laughs."
"Grandparents get numerous benefits from connecting with grandchildren through physical activity — increased socialization, mental stimulation, the sense of purpose it brings, a more meaningful life," says Michael Rogers, a professor of human performance studies and director of the Center for Physical Activity and Aging at Wichita State University.  
Health Benefits to Grandparents 
Again, the research speaks volumes. A survey of 8,972 grandmothers and 6,567 grandfathers age 50 and over, all of whom had at least one grandchild, found that grandmothers who stepped in to provide child care — whether frequently or infrequently — had "significantly higher physical health scores" than those who provided none. 
In another study, researchers observed five three-generation families – each with at least one child, one parent and one grandparent – that identified as physically active. They concluded that grandparents "contribute to a family culture of physical activity." Plus, such play then motivated those grandparents all the more to stay physically active. 
Brina Widlansky, 69, a former preschool and elementary school teacher in Fort Lauderdale, plays regularly with all seven of her grandchildren, ranging in age from 13 to four months. Together they dance and play basketball and volleyball in a pool. "My time with my grandchildren revolves around play," she says. "We make it fun, rather than competitive, and everyone laughs."
"Playing with children adds value not only for children but also for adult caregivers." 
"Playing with children adds value not only for children but also for adult caregivers," says "The Power of Play," a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Adults can "reexperience or reawaken the joy of their own childhood and rejuvenate themselves. … Play enables children and adults to be passionately and totally immersed in an activity of their choice and to experience intense joy."
Tell me about it. From early on Lucia and I went in for all kinds of athletic antics. We crawled along the floor as I pursued her and then fled as she pursued, both of us gleeful. I held her horizontal in the air so she could pretend to be flying around the house. She put her feet over my feet so I could walk around giving her a free ride as a passenger around the house. "Again!" she always insisted, and, of course, I always obliged.
Researching Play 
Research into grandparent-grandchild play may be on the upswing. Last year, researchers at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium started the Healthy Grandparenting Project. The two-year study, likely the first of its kind, will compare caregiving grandparents with non-caregiving grandparents and non-grandparents. Researchers plan to measure levels of physical activity as well as sedentary behavior, body composition and quality of life in 276 participants, half men and half women, all with grandchildren age 5 or younger. The main goal is to learn whether — and how — physical activity in grandparents increases and improves health.
Belgians take grandparent play quite seriously, possibly because the country has so many grandparents. An estimated 62% of men and 70% of women in Belgium age 50 or over are grandparents, one of the highest rates in Europe. More than half of those grandparents (53%) look after grandchildren, averaging 13 hours of child care in a typical week.
Ghent University in Belgium recently developed the GRANDPACT Project, an intergenerational initiative now almost halfway complete, to promote physical activity between grandparents and grandchildren. A recently published study reported that the program is expected to improve not only physical activity and cognitive function in grandparents but also motivation, psychosocial well-being and the quality of the grandchild-grandparent relationship. 
Creating a Bond 
Susan and Jack Smithlin, both 71, of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, already have physical play with grandchildren down to a science. After all, they're both former high school physical education teachers. They take their two grandchildren, ages two and four, to a local park to dribble and kick soccer balls, bounce around on a trampoline or throw and catch. "We play whenever we're together," Susan says. "It creates a bond between us."
"Each generation can learn through play to better understand the other." 
"Each generation can learn through play to better understand the other," Rogers of Wichita State University explains. "The grandparents will once again experience how it is to be young and the grandchildren may start to recognize that eventually they will be old. It can make a big difference in how they see each other."
Lucia and I have discovered each other as playmates both indoors and outdoors. "Outside?" I'll ask her. "Outside!" she'll exclaim at the top of her lungs. Off we'll then go to walk our dog or race in sprints, nothing over our heads but the sky. There, in the open air, we'll play soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, any sport she wants. I've played my whole life, climbing trees and swinging off branches into swimming holes as a boy, so Lucia is very much a girl after my own heart.
Jim Dohms, 71, romps around more with his four great-grandchildren, ages seven, five, three and two, than his eight grandchildren (because they live closer). They all wade in the creek behind his house in Maggie Valley, North Carolina and play Marco Polo. "I love it all," he says, "especially the sound of our children laughing."
Call playing with your grandchildren a public service if you like. It's axiomatic that children require physical play in order to develop properly. But that need increasingly threatens to go unmet. A survey by the Seattle Children's Research Institute of 8,950 preschool children and parents found that only 51% of children went outside at least once a day to walk or play with either parent. Making matters worse, owing to the ever-higher premium placed on children excelling academically, an estimated 30% of U.S kindergarteners no longer have recess.
Do Grandfathers and Grandmothers Play Differently? 
Here's an interesting sidelight: grandfathers may generally be more vigorous than grandmothers in physical play with grandchildren. So theorizes Michael Yogman, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and lead author of "The Power of Play" report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. He extrapolates this Grandpa Advantage from research showing that fathers are more hands-on than mothers about physical activity with children. 
Whereas women might take children to a park or enroll them in a sports program, men might engage in rough-and-tumble frolicking, and in the process encourage kids to explore, take risks and build a sense of independence.
"Moderation is key, in both the amount of activity and of time spent with grandchildren." 
Such is the case apropos gender differences in the Ripp household in New York City. Grandmother Sarah, 67, will engage her two nearby toddler grandchildren in craft projects such as collages. But no sooner does grandfather Allan, 69, set foot in a room than the tykes automatically expect some physicality. Pretending to be superheroes, they pummel, tackle and climb on top of him. Sometimes they accidentally smack him on the nose or kick him in the groin. Even so, it's all done in a spirit of adventure. "I'm lucky," he says. "When we play, we're very much at one."
Pat Rumbaugh, 65, executive director of the nonprofit Let's Play America, credits her maternal grandmother, who supported her tomboy tendencies growing up, with her advocacy of play. She often takes her two-year-old grandson Charlie to the playground for "free-choice" play. Charlie gets to set his own agenda, whether it's to shoot a basketball, swing a tennis racquet or push his newborn sister Samantha around in a stroller. "We just follow his lead," Pat says. "It's super fun."
How to Play It Safe 
The best advice from physicians and sports-medicine experts for playing safely with your grandchild? Factor in your overall health condition and fitness level. Do the same as you would with any exertion. Start slow. Go easy. Take breaks. Stop before you overdo it and run the risk of hurting yourself.
"Moderation is key, in both the amount of activity and of time spent with grandchildren," cautions Rogers. "Grandparents should avoid exercise that could aggravate any heart, respiratory and metabolic diseases. Perform activities that encompass cardiovascular exercise (running, walking, cycling), strength training (weight-lifting), flexibility (yoga) and balance exercises (tai chi). And remember: it's also important to take time to decompress between visits."
You might introduce games you yourself liked during your own childhood, such as hopscotch or tag or monkey-in-the-middle or stickball.
Beyond that, find an activity you'll both enjoy. Take a walk or play catch or skip rocks across a pond. You might introduce games you yourself liked during your own childhood, such as hopscotch or tag or monkey-in-the-middle or stickball. Bear in mind, too, that kids are more likely to be active outdoors than indoors.
They're also more energetic playing together with others – including grandparents – than by themselves. So rather than just tell your grandchild to "go play," take the opportunity to say "let's all of us go out to play."
Making this investment in your health portfolio could be just what the doctor ordered.
Now, as I play with Lucia, everything old suddenly feels new. Once more I, too, feel like a child, all but born again. She takes me out of myself as little else in my life ever manages to do.I attribute this miraculous transformation to a scientific phenomenon I dub the Lucia Effect. She singlehandedly supports my long-held theory that little children are magical creatures, endowed with the power to cast spells over any of us at any time.
And here's yet another bonus. A few weeks ago, Lucia received an early birthday present: a baby brother, Nicola. So whatever I can now teach Lucia about play she can later teach him, too.


Rx for Grandparents: Play With Your Grandkids

Bob Brody

Maybe you're getting a tax refund this spring. If you can spare the cash, how about investing at least some of it in an underserved population where your dollars could do a lot of good? Girls' and women's nonprofits receive only 1.8% of overall charitable giving. How much more could they do with real funding?
"Giving women the resources and tools to succeed makes a huge difference in their families and their communities.""Investing in girls and women is a lever for economic progress here and around the world," says Una Osili, associate dean for research at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. "By improving women's economic security, we invest in stability for the entire community."
"Investing in girls and women is a lever for economic progress here and around the world."
A small endowment this tax season is an investment in the next generation of creators, scientists, nurturers and community builders.
A Little Charity Goes a Long Way
As a few examples, these nonprofits focus on girls and women and have earned top-tier scores from the donor watchdog group Charity Navigator:
• Pink Ribbon Good gives practical support to women battling breast or gynecological cancer. A $50 contribution provides transportation to and from one cancer treatment session.
• Girlstart empowers girls in grades 4 through 8 through fun, informal STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education programs. A $100 donation supplies materials for a week's after-school program.
• Women, Food and Agriculture Network trains leaders, builds networks and offers education to women in sustainable food-systems development. A $150 gift supports a soil health and water quality workshop at a Women Caring for the Land event.
• The National Domestic Violence Hotline is the only 24/7 national, anonymous and confidential hotline for people affected by relationship abuse. Every $200 that is raised is enough to connect, on average, four survivors with a live advocate via phone, chat or text.
• Girls Who Invest diversifies an industry by offering Gen-Zers education, mentoring and internships in investment management; 69% are women of color. A contribution of $250 provides a week's meals during the Summer Intensive Program.
'A Gender Lens'
Giving USA, the publisher of an authoritative annual report on philanthropic fundraising and spending, doesn't break out donations to charities specifically for women and girls. But most nonprofits in the categories it does have, such as "religion," "human services," "education" and "health," serve girls and women generally already. You may ask why we need charities specifically for women and girls.
Osili, a Harvard graduate who earned a Ph.D. from Northwestern, says that "bringing a gender lens helps show disparities and specific barriers more clearly.
"Take education: Around the world, girls and young women often have no access to schools; opening classrooms to girls enables them to contribute more to society, so opportunity accelerates progress," Osili says.
"Opportunity accelerates progress."
In the United States, the lens might focus more on childcare. What most helps a low-income mother achieve a higher-paying job? Affordable, quality childcare so she can go back to school, Osili says. "But without a gender lens on the subject, we may be missing out on ways to accelerate solutions to the problems for which donors are giving."
Top philanthropists are thinking this way already. In 2007, through her charitable foundation, Oprah Winfrey made a point of creating the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, which continues to serve girls of poverty and promise. She calls it "my greatest legacy."
In 2015, Melinda Gates committed $1 billion to expanding women's power and influence in the U.S. and wrote a book, "The Moment of Lift," about "how empowering women changes the world."
Growing Funding Grows Girls
Take a look at just one part of the world: Los Angeles, where a group called the Los Angeles Women's Giving Circle has worked for years to research nonprofits and decide where to donate its members' pool of funds. An early choice was Motivating Our Students Through Experience, (MOSTe) which mentors girls from underserved neighborhoods to and through college.
Since 2007, the giving circle has donated tens of thousands of dollars to MOSTe, says Bonnie Davidoff, one of the group's founders. "Why? Because with double even a small income, a worthy nonprofit can pay staff better, so the staff stay on longer and hire a grant writer to bring in longer-term support for their work," she explains. Before such early infusions, MOSTe was all volunteer; now it has an executive director and three other paid staff.
With a growing number of donations of $100 to $150, says Amy Ludwig, who was MOSTe's executive director until February, MOSTe has been able to offer college visits, communication workshops (complete with instruction on how to give effective "elevator speeches") and career fairs to a growing number of recipients in 6th through 12th grade. There are 110 at present.
Altogether, the nonprofit has helped more than 2,000 girls and young women; 60 are currently in college. "Compared with peers of similar demographics — first-generation students of color from low-income backgrounds — our students graduate college at vastly higher rates," Ludwig says proudly.
"Once I've settled into my career, I hope to be a mentor for MOSTe," a young woman who signed on with the nonprofit as a seventh grader wrote late last year. Having made it successfully through high school and college, she is now teaching fifth grade at a Title I school in Los Angeles.
"Empowering women changes the world."
'Donors Can Make a Big Difference'
There is little research on "women's causes" and their big donors. The Lilly Family School Women's Philanthropy Institute (WPI) is one entity studying how gender shapes donor behavior. It has learned from fundraisers, donors and advisers as well as nonprofits' mission statements and programs about what they do and whom they serve.
Last October, WPI produced "The Women & Girls Index 2023: Measuring Giving to Women's and Girls' Organizations," the latest edition of data on charitable organizations dedicated to women and girls. It found that as of 2020, these nonprofits received only 1.8% of overall charitable giving, a figure that has barely budged. The good news? That total in dollars was up just over 9% from the year before.
"Issues affecting women and girls (for example, the gender pay gap, sexual harassment and assault) have received increased attention in recent years, but charitable giving to organizations addressing these issues lags behind," the report says.
'Individuals Can Make a Big Difference'
"While the state of funding for women and girls is dismal," it adds, "this also means that individual donors can make a big difference" for members of the Women and Girls Index (WGI), the only comprehensive analysis of charitable giving to organizations dedicated to women and girls in the United States.
WGI nonprofits tend to be smaller than average, both in funding and in staff, the report notes — and this offers an opportunity for small donors. "A lot of small organizations are trying to make a difference, and we can help them become more sustainable and increase their capacity," explains Dawna Cobb, a longtime Baltimore backer of nonprofits that support women and families. "Giving women the resources and tools to succeed makes a huge difference in their families and their communities."
"When I think of how I want to leave the world better for my daughter and grandchildren to come, it means — from a financial perspective — I'm helping countless people I do not know," says Texas-based philanthropy consultant Fayruz Benyousef, a longtime donor to and board member of the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
"When you think about your purpose, when you think of someone who helped you in a time of great need, you know that a gift to any organization that's helping women is a seed planted to improve lives forever."


Effective Philanthropy for Half of Humanity

Ellen Ryan

In "A Tale of Two Cities," Charles Dickens famously wrote about the best of times and the worst of times. The latter makes one think of these times. COVID-19 shows no respect for borders, geographies, socioeconomic status, political affiliation or age. Yet the pandemic has brought into stark focus the gross disparities in our world.
So has the pandemic been the worst of times? We certainly have been through a great deal, yet in some sense, the tough part has only begun. And sometimes, the tough part involves an honest look in the mirror, which makes possible our tribulations to not be in vain.
The Worst of Times
No question, the last year has felt Dickensian.
Millions have lost their lives worldwide. Here in the United States, hundreds of thousands of businesses have shut down. Seemingly in the blink of an eye, millions of people — some of them our friends and family members, if not us — were furloughed or lost their livelihoods.
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that life expectancy in the U.S. declined by a full year in the first half of 2020 — the worst decline since World War II. 
We each hold the power to be agents of change and transform this moment into the best of times.
Even more troubling, average life expectancy decreased by 2.7 years for non-Hispanic Black people and 1.9 years for Latinos. Men and women of color, individuals with unstable incomes and older adults — specifically those in long-term care facilities — felt this insidious enemy's devastating, often fatal blows hardest. 
Yet truth and insight emerge.
The Best of Times
As we focus on the future, we can look to a source of true leadership — those ages 50+ — whose actions can inspire us all to not only put the worst of times behind us, but emerge stronger than ever.
I firmly believe that we each hold the power to be agents of change and transform this moment into the best of times. After all, this pandemic has clearly demonstrated that we are an interconnected society.
One year into the pandemic, I see three things in particular that many older Americans are doing to inspire a brighter, better and more equitable future for all:
1. Refusing to be stereotyped or defined by other people's view of who they should be and how they should act. Older people have not allowed this pandemic to define them. On the contrary, they are breaking out of stereotypes — at work and beyond.
That might take the form of an older employee easily adapting to remote work technologies. Older adults are Zooming, Teamsing, Facetiming and Skyping with their family, friends, religious institutions and health care professionals. 
Or the personification of this defying of stereotypes might be someone like  Ruth Rudd, the 88-year-old grandmother who has become a viral TikTok sensation with dances that lift people's spirits.
At every turn, older adults are demonstrating that they will be neither confined nor defined by others. They are living their lives on their own terms and leading with purpose and intention while inspiring others to do the same.   
2. Using strength and resolve to embrace disruption, always remembering that life is a series of moments — and making them count. Older adults are resilient.They have been able to adapt and pivot to new ways of managing their lives and embrace the incredibly abrupt shifts required as pandemic restrictions have grown and changed.
Even in the pandemic, as job security declined for millions of Americans and unemployment increased, many people over 50 found that there was no better time than the present to gain new skills to better perform in their jobs or shift to new careers.
According to an AARP survey of workers with job insecurity conducted in late 2020, 80% of workers ages 50 to 65 said it would be very or somewhat important to gain new skills in the next year so they could keep their current job or find a new one.
More than two-thirds (69%) of workers in that age group said it was very or somewhat likely that they would have to learn new skills in order to get a new job. And about 15% said they have considered getting new skills or a new degree that allows them to work from home as a result of COVID-19.
Adapting to a new world of work, a need accelerated by COVID-19, requires a commitment to lifelong learning and pursuing the necessary skills to remain relevant and competitive in the marketplace.
Beyond the workplace, older adults have embraced an understanding of the present moment's value. They have been able to reflect and appreciate the many things they might previously have taken for granted, whether that's travel or seeing family and friends.
As a generation known for being disrupters, many older adults know about exposing injustices and working to do something about them.
The pandemic, despite the pain and tragedy it has caused, is a moment in time. It's up to all of us to make it count.
3. Seizing the moment to bring about social justice and showing that we all have a choice (and that inaction, too, is a decision). As a generation known for being disrupters, many older adults — having stood up over the years for causes such as peace, women's rights, civil rights and LGBT rights — know about exposing injustices and working to do something about them. During the pandemic, we saw older adults of different races and ethnicities marching and protesting to bring greater attention to systematic disparities and the need for social justice. 
In June 2020, a 75-year-old man in Buffalo, N.Y. named Martin donned his COVID-19 mask and went outside to join a crowd of people peacefully standing up against long-standing systematic inequities. Martin could have chosen to stay home. And he knew there were risks in gathering in a crowd, even masked, in the midst of a pandemic. But he was concerned and wanted to make his voice heard.
Like Martin, adults from all walks of life have wanted to make their voices heard. We saw people like 78-year-old Cherry in Houston, 69-year-old Rhonda in Louisville, 71-year-old Nick in Baltimore and 60-year-old Mallorie in Berkeley (representative of countless others) marching to bring greater attention to systematic disparities and the need for change.
They chose not to be on the sidelines of history and their stories inspired many more to do the same. 
Herein lies a key to what we need today.
We Hold the Future in Our Hands
In 1971, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer captured the importance of action and empowerment  in a speech where she told the story of a wise old man. Hamer said he could answer questions that were almost impossible for others to answer.
So, one day two young people, trying to trip him up, devised a plan. "We're going to catch a bird, and we're going to carry it to this old man," they said. "And we're going to ask him, 'This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?' If he says 'Dead,' we're going to turn it loose and let it fly. But if he says, 'Alive,' we're going to crush it."
So, they walked up to this old man, and they said, "This that we hold in our hands today, is it alive or is it dead?"
The old man looked at the young people, and then he smiled. "It's in your hands," he said.
Older adults are demonstrating that if we want a better world tomorrow, we need to speed the pace of progress today. We are, in fact, the change we've been waiting for. It is in our hands.
The 'We Can Do Better' Times
Before we arrive at the best of times, first must come a transitional period — call it the "we can do better" times.
The pandemic, for better or for worse (or both), has drastically changed our society, our community and — in many cases — us.  While some changes we've experienced this past year won't turn out to be permanent, some will stay in place, many for the better.
I fully expect older Americans to continue to break stereotypes and continue to use their strength and resolve, honed over a lifetime, to drive progress.
What absolutely cannot continue to exist in post-COVID-19 America are the disparities and disadvantages that only grow deeper and wider as we age.  We have an opportunity to set a new course and do the hard work to change systems, create new structures, and challenge those who say it all can't, or shouldn't, be done.
In everything we do, and with everything we have, we hold an opportunity to construct a future that builds wealth, strengthens health and ensures the same economic and educational opportunity that benefits not just the privileged but those historically marginalized.
This isn't just wishful thinking. It's something that actually can happen.  But we must be brave enough to want it, confident enough to plan it and proactive enough to make it happen.
Amid all that happened in 2020, it was particularly poignant to lose the great civil rights icon and U.S. Representative John Lewis. In his book "Across That Bridge: A Vision of Change and the Future of America," he wrote, "It is only through examining history that you become aware of where you stand within the continuum of change."
Sit with those words for a while. Hopefully, the pandemic will soon be history. But it has laid bare a stark reality. Given history, where do you stand within the continuum of change? 


Are There Silver Linings From the COVID-19 Anniversary?

Jean Accius

Mike HendersonWhen Mike Henderson showed up at art school in 1965, the only one he found that would accept a Black man, he felt like he had come home. After getting his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), he taught for more than 40 years at the University of California, Davis. 
Now, a show of Mike Henderson's work, Before the Fire: 1965-1985, is at UC Davis' Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. It's the artist's first U.S. solo museum exhibition in 20 years, featuring his early protest paintings as well as later abstract work.
Henderson was born in Marshall, Missouri in 1943 and grew up with seven siblings in a house with no plumbing. His mother was a cook and his father worked as a janitor. The Ku Klux Klan were a presence in town, marching in parades, and a teacher told the Black students he was just going to show them how to wait tables. No one around him except his aunt encouraged his interest in art, which started when he was a little boy.  
"I remember just staring at the paintings in church or in a magazine or comic book ... My father used to yank them out of my hand."
"I remember just staring at the paintings in church or in a magazine or comic book," he said. "My father used to yank them out of my hand saying, 'You're not even reading the book, you're just staring at the pictures.' What I was trying to figure out was how this guy made Superman look like you're looking up at him on this page — about perspective, you know, and where is the viewer." 
Henderson shined shoes at a hotel and took a correspondence course in drawing. He put his work up at the shoeshine stand to sell to customers. One of those customers who admired his art bought him a ticket to see a Van Gogh exhibit at the museum in Kansas City. The paintings, particularly The Potato Eaters, which he saw depicting the kind of poverty he knew, made a big impression.  
Having made it to art school in his early 20s against such long odds, Henderson seemed determined to learn everything he could, and in the Manetti Shrem show, his ambition and range are apparent.  
"I just approached every moment like, 'I might not be here tomorrow.' I remember walking down the steps going to the painting studio one day and I realized it was the wintertime, and it wasn't snowing. And I thought, 'Wow, it's 10am in the morning, and I'm going down to paint. Back in Missouri, I'd be out looking for some job to shovel snow to make a few bucks," he said. 
The fire in the show's title is literal —  in 1985, one broke out in Henderson's home studio.
"It was all about working and for me, it was double or even triple because I didn't know what it took to be an artist. So how do you know when you even are an artist?'" 
Undoubtedly an artist, Henderson has received two Guggenheim fellowships and his paintings have been exhibited in institutions including New York's Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Studio Museum in Harlem, the San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art and the de Young Museum, Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum, and Chicago's School of the Art Institute.  
Along with painting, he's made short, experimental films, which he decided to do after going to a memorial for Martin Luther King and wanting his paintings to move to make them more powerful. Henderson is also a blues guitarist who has shared the stage with artists including John Lee Hooker, Big Joe Turner, and Lightnin' Hopkins.  
Mike Henderson, Love it or Leave it, I Will Love it if You Leave it, 1976. Mixed media, 69 × 108 in.The exhibition, designed by George McCalman, who wrote Illustrated Black History, includes some of Henderson's music, with a space adjacent to the exhibition called Cosmic Strut (named for one of Henderson's records), where his music plays softly and visitors are invited to reflect on the show. Some of Henderson's films, such as Pitchfork and the Devil and The Shape of Things, are also in the show.  
Henderson became a professor at Davis at the invitation of William T. Wiley (he turned the offer down at first, not wanting to move to another small town, but decided to stay in San Francisco and commute). Along with Wiley, the Davis art department then included heavy hitters such as Wayne Thiebaud, Manuel Neri, and Roy De Forrest.  
Henderson loved working with these artists and loves the inclusion of some of his early work in the Davis show. The fire in the show's title is literal —  in 1985, one broke out in Henderson's home studio. He was traveling at the time and thought all his paintings had been destroyed. But some survived, and many of the pieces that were covered in of dirt and ash have been restored by the Manetti Shrem.  
One of the paintings in the exhibition, Love it or Leave it, I Will Love it if You Leave it, was purposefully left unrestored by the curators, Dan Nagel and Sampada Aranke. The painting, the bottom scarred from the fire, depicts a flag covered in what looks like graffiti, and you can make out the word, "marriage," and a small picture of the Statue of Library. 
Love it or Leave it, I Will Love it if You Leave it is hung lower than other works in the show. Aranke, a professor at Chicago's School of the Art Institute who specializes in Black art, says she made that decision to make it more accessible to viewers — and to encourage thinking about what the flag symbolizes.  
Mike Henderson, Non-Violence, 1967, Oil on Canvas, 71x 120 in."By placing the flag lower, I am trying to ask the viewer to reflect upon or even question its power — and by extension that of the nation," she wrote in an email. "I also wanted the viewer to be able to see the flag's detail — the intense layers of composition and formal choices as well as the material evidence of the fire." 
Other paintings from the Civil Rights era include Freedom, which shows Black prisoners rising against the white prison guards, and Non-Violence (the one the Whitney acquired), depicting a white police officer wearing a swastika armband attacking two Black people with a bloodied knife.  
Aranke considers Henderson's work prescient.  
"Whether explicit or abstract, Mike's works embody the many layers of systems (police, belief systems, art world gatekeepers) that create almost impossible conditions for Black people to live." 
"Whether explicit or abstract, Mike's works embody the many layers of systems (police, belief systems, art world gatekeepers) that create almost impossible conditions for Black people to live," Aranke wrote. "Mike takes those complexities and presents them in both painting and film, using both to unpack the rich nuances of what it means to inherit systems that are beyond one's control." 
With the exhibition, Aranke wanted to showcase Henderson's versatility and show his work as part of a history of Black radical critique. She calls his work moving and dynamic.  
For his part, Henderson says he loves everything about the exhibition. He wanted to be an artist and he made himself one. And in his decades teaching at Davis, he influenced hundreds of students, such as Carlos F. Jackson, a painter and professor at Davis and Maisha Winn, who also works at Davis, co-directing the Transformative Justice in Education Center.  
Henderson says he wants to be an "oracle," there to help young artists the way people inspired him at SFAI. He adds that as a kid, he dreamed of getting a guitar and a box of paints for Christmas. Being at SFAI in the 60s was like that, but better.   
"It was like this package waiting to be opened and everything in there was just like, 'Wow, just what you want.'" Henderson said. "It was the perfect gift for me. The right people, the right time." 


Artist Mike Henderson: Before and After the Fire

Emily Wilson

In honor of Menopause Awareness Month, we are running a series of stories about menopause. Our goal is to illuminate a topic that is sometimes shrouded in misinformation and shame. We hope to change that.After decades, what many women refer to as The Curse yields to a second natural biological process that — oh, the irony — isn't always widely appreciated either. As the body gears up to shut down the reproductive system, the transition through menopause often presents challenges, including hot flashes, brain fog, dryness "down there" and sleep disruption.
"I'm having more problems with self-esteem," René Ostberg wrote on Next Avenue's Facebook page when we asked for your menopause stories. In an interview, Ostberg, 48, said she connects menopause with aging. 
One Perceived Benefit of The Change
"As a teen, I hated my period and would joke with friends that I would have a big party when I hit menopause," she says. "But a year after my periods stopped, I dreamed it came back — and I was so relieved! I had the sense that I was still valued as a woman in society, still young."
"In our culture and our society, so often it's looked at as a negative. That's not the case in other cultures."
Ostberg, a writer and editor who lives in a suburb of Chicago, then cited one big benefit of The Change: "It liberates us from the expectations put on younger women regarding appearance. Menopause is making me think less about superficial things and more about my health. I started a yoga practice and I'm taking walks in the woods, rethinking so many things about myself physically and emotionally. I'm taking stock of my life, and it's an interesting journey."
Dr. Debra Wickman embraces that metaphor. "Menopause becomes a journey through all aspects of body, mind, heart and spirit," she says. "We need to stop mythologizing it, and instead make it a natural phase of life and optimize that." 
Wickman, 60, is a gynecologist at the Banner-University Medicine Women's Institute, based in Phoenix. She champions menopause as the perfect phase for women "to add vitality to all your relationships, starting with the one you have with yourself."
Welcome to the 'Power Stage'
In her self-described roles as a physician, coach and cheerleader, Wickman tells her patients that menopause is "the power stage." 
She says: "For so long, women intentionally put ourselves and our needs on the back burner, and suddenly two decades have flown by. I tell women going through menopause to look at all their wisdom, take control and think about what they would love to do in the next six months, one year or five years."
Dr. Debra WickmanThose conversations take time, and Wickman says she typically spends 45 minutes on them with established patients. 
"When you're transitioning into menopause, you're trying to come to grips with shifts in your body, your self-esteem, your functionality," Wickman notes. "Women would love help with all these areas, not just a prescription. They need to connect with a doctor who loves talking with them. If a doctor blows off your concerns or steers you into one narrow way of coping with menopause, go see a different doctor."
Melody Taylor Stark, 66, found a doctor who agreed with her that traditional and non-traditional approaches can complement each other when a woman has trouble managing symptoms of menopause. 
"Traditional medication is one-size-fits-all, and it can take years just to manage it," Stark says. "I found a hormone cream that you rub on your arm when having hot flashes and that gave me a sense of managing the changes in my body."
Stark, who works for a large mental health agency in the Los Angeles area, also tweaked her attitude. 
"While there are many annoying elements about it, menopause also can be a spiritual journey during an important time of transition," she says. "In our culture and our society, so often it's looked at as a negative. That's not the case in other cultures. For example, a woman can't be a shaman until she's menopausal. I like to think of it as a new season of life, and some parts of it are enriching. I want to promote an anti-ageist attitude and embrace elderhood."
'I Felt Amazing'
Beth Lynn Pegg Hinman of Novi, Mich., wrote on the Next Avenue Facebook page that perimenopause was worse for her than the aftermath. 
Melody Taylor Stark"I didn't know myself anymore. The roller coaster of hormonal shifts and the toll it took on me physically and mentally was far from fun," she wrote. Then it got better — much better.
"Once menopause brought an end to the crazy ride, it was like a load was lifted off my being and I felt amazing," Pegg Hinman wrote.
Teri Rhan, of Mountlake Terrace, Wash., reported a personal climate change. 
"Menopause ramped up my internal thermostat around 50 years old, so I'm nearly always overheated. I rarely wear a coat, I sleep with only one fuzzy blanket from late fall to early spring and my home thermostat is set around 62-65 in the winter," she wrote. "I don't expect this to always be the case, but enjoying it while I can." 
Some women experience few symptoms as fertility wanes. 
Jerry Ann Barber of Casper, Wyo., wrote that she "followed my mother's pattern and had almost no symptoms." Gail Hummel Savage, of Bethel, Pa., also had an easy transition. "I had a very unexpected but welcomed baby at 46, and then didn't go through menopause until I was about 58," she wrote. "I had a couple light periods, and then I just didn't have any more. No hot flashes, no crazy side effects. It just seemed so natural to me."
Ellen Hansen of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., had no need for hormone-replacement therapy and "sailed through" menopause. "Before you hate on me, I got my first period just before my eleventh birthday and my last at 57," she wrote. "I deserved a break by then."
Sometimes, The Change Is Abrupt
Some women's periods come to an end prematurely, either through surgery or chemotherapy. That happened to me. After my aunt told me she'd barely noticed her transition through menopause, I was determined to avoid hormone-replacement therapy. Then, chemotherapy after a breast cancer diagnosis abruptly put an end to my periods and also dissolved my defiant stance, which was considered pioneering at the time. 
Gail Appleson, 69, the senior writer at The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis had an entirely different experience. In 2001, just after she started noticing menopausal symptoms, Appleson was the national legal correspondent for the Reuters news agency in New York City, working out of the federal courthouse. She had recently covered a terrorism case involving members of al-Qaeda who had bombed the U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. 
"A lot of creepy things happened during the trial and I, as well as others, started having nightmares about the World Trade Center being attacked," she says. "When I saw it actually happen, I think I went into a type of shock. My periods completely stopped, and they never came back."
When Did Menopause Awareness Month Become a Thing?
A dozen years ago, in collaboration with the World Health Organization, the British-based International Menopause Society, designated October as World Menopause Awareness Month. Breast Cancer Awareness Month, celebrated every October since 1985, most likely is willing to share.  


Menopause Sparks Dismay, Relief or Joy — or All That

Patricia Corrigan

When Larry Braun was wondering what to do in retirement, the chemist had no idea that reviving the photography hobby of his youth would lead to a featured U.S. postage stamp. Braun's photo of sunset over the Mississippi River at Kentucky was one of 10 stamps the United States Postal Service released this spring as the "Mighty Mississippi" collection.
Larry Braun at the ceremony introducing the Mighty Mississippi stamp collection"This stamp thing has really been a boost to my photography," Braun says. "It has exposed my work to a larger audience and gives it more credibility. People say, 'he's the guy who did the stamp'."
At age 69, Braun says he unconsciously evolved from shooting solely for pleasure to becoming a professional photographer. In 2008, he placed first in a photo contest at the Margaret Harwell Museum in Poplar Bluff, Missouri. That gave him confidence. Since then, he's exhibited his work at other venues in Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky and won multiple regional awards.
"It has exposed my work to a larger audience and gives it more credibility. People say, 'he's the guy who did the stamp.'"
In addition, one of his Mississippi River photos was published in "Architectural Digest." Three were selected for Missouri Life magazine's "My Missouri" photo project to celebrate the bicentennial of statehood. They are now part of the Missouri Historical Society's permanent collection.
A Passion for Making Art Out of the Ordinary
Braun has been commissioned to create books of towns and farms and produced two books of his own, "Towns of Southeast Missouri: A Photo Tour" and "Christmas Country Church Tour." Braun's photographs hang in regional hospitals, clinics, hotels and banks. "I like doing work for hospitals," he says. "It's part of the healing process having these pictures there."
Being retired, Braun says he doesn't have to earn a living with his camera, so he shoots only what interests him — landscapes, old buildings and Midwestern and Southern small towns — like his own, Benton, Missouri. He's passionate about "making art from the ordinary" and evoking mood.
"There's a lot of things here people don't look at," he says of the rural regions he travels. "They're ordinary things. But when you look at them a certain way, there's a mystic or spiritual part that I'm trying to capture. Without feeling, it's just a snapshot that anyone could take. The feeling is how I put my own stamp on it."
It was while serving on the aircraft carrier USS Midway in the 1970s that Braun bought his first camera. Wanting to record his travels, as his father had done as a service member during World War II, Braun took pictures of street scenes in Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, Korea and Hong Kong. But when his military service ended, his photographing tapered off.
"I wanted to go into photography in college but I didn't think I could make a living with it," says Braun. Instead, he majored in chemistry at Southeast Missouri State University, then worked for the New Madrid Power Plant for 34 years.
"To capture feeling, you've got to have time to sit and think and feel."
With his children grown and retirement looming, Braun began hiking for health and enjoyment. He joined a hiking group in St. Louis that he found online. They met at trailheads around the state. To document his hikes, Braun bought a small point and shoot camera.
Eventually though, he found himself wanting to spend more time alone on the trails with his camera. "People don't want to stop and wait for you to get the right shot," he says. "But to capture feeling, you've got to have time to sit and think and feel."
Getting Serious About His Art
Soon, Braun bought a digital camera and began hiking specifically to take pictures. To improve his skill, he completed a professional photography course online, watched YouTube videos, and did all the exercises in a second-hand photography textbook. Even so, he had difficulty conveying the feel of the places through his photos.
Then he found digital editing software. "Photoshop really lit me up," he said. With the ability to add layers and textures to his shots, he could make them more emotionally expressive. They could look like a painting. "It took me about six months to learn the camera mechanics, but I'm still learning ways to capture feeling visually."
Living within easy driving distance of four states, day trips fuel Braun's work. "I've been on just about all of the hiking trails in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois," he says. He's traveled many of the regions' two-lane black-top roads, too. Sometimes he parks and walks along the roadside. "Walking down a country road you'll see things you wouldn't see driving. Walking is good inspiration," Braun claims.
Often those country roads lead to tiny towns whose population and economy have dwindled. Photographing them, Braun points to realist painter Edward Hopper as inspiration—especially his work "House by the Railroad." That painting, Braun says, reflects "how people who do the work feel alienated from the system. I feel drawn to that."
As a fifth generation native of such towns, he tries to show what's unique about them and "put them in their best light." Sometimes that means digging into the history of the place or a specific building he's photographing. He has created an extensive photo collection of the historic French colonial structures of Ste. Genevieve, the oldest permanent European settlement west of the Mississippi. The town itself is a National Historic Park.
In the spring, Braun was photographing towns and trails along Highway 63 from Arkansas to the Iowa border. He has hit pause on shooting until fall. When the summer weather gets hot and humid with thick spider webs crisscrossing the trails, hiking isn't fun so he spends the season processing his photos.
How the Postage Stamp Happened
One of those day trips yielded Braun's postage stamp picture. Returning home just as the sun was fading, he steered into Fort Jefferson Hill Park in Wickliffe, Kentucky, and caught a pastel sky hugging the bend in the river just south of where the Ohio flows into the Mississippi.
That was in 2014. Six years later, the graphic design company scouting for photos for the United States Postal Services' Mighty Mississippi collection found his Kentucky sunset picture on Flickr. They were searching for images from all 10 states the river touches. When they contacted Braun to ask about using his photo, he was excited and honored.
"I feel very connected to the river," he says. "It's a national treasure. Go watch when it's about at flood stage before they close the flood gates. You'll see huge trees floating down the river. And it's a historic river. Mark Twain wrote about it. LaSalle and Lewis and Clark explored it."
On May 23, Braun and his wife, Darcy, day tripped to Memphis, Tennessee, to attend the stamp collection's unveiling ceremony at the Beale Street Landing. As icing on the cake, the unveiling date was also the couple's thirteenth anniversary and his granddaughter Claire's ninth birthday.
"That's Claire," he said, pointing at her photo on his living room wall. "There's a little bit of legacy in this, too. My grandkids and great-grandkids can say their grandfather had a photo on a postage stamp. Not many people do."
You can see Braun's photography through his website or at the Anna Arts Center exhibit in Anna, Illinois, from July 19 through August 11.

How a Retiree’s Photograph Wound Up on a Postage Stamp

Christina Leimer

This is an installment of the “Retirement for the Rest of Us” series, a Next Avenue initiative.Many people are in their 50s and early 60s when they realize that they're financially unprepared for retirement. Of course, they knew long before that they hadn't saved much for their retirement and that they hadn't done any retirement planning.
What makes this moment different? Retirement is no longer an abstract concept somewhere off in the distant future, but a looming existential choice.
Almost 48% of American workers are not covered by a retirement plan at work, the University of Pennsylvania economist John Sabelhaus calculates in a recent research paper. People without access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan typically save little for their elder years.If that's you, you're far from alone. A majority of people nearing retirement really aren't ready financially. The median 401(k)/IRA balance was $144,000 in 2019, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Almost 48% of American workers are not covered by a retirement plan at work, the University of Pennsylvania economist John Sabelhaus calculates in a recent research paper. People without access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan typically save little for their elder years.
How Did This Happen?
Outside the highest earners, wages in recent decades have largely stagnated for most workers after adjusting for inflation.
"Don't blame yourself. There are probably good reasons why you're in the situation." 
There are many reasons why so many near-retirees aren't prepared, including the cost of raising a family, spells of unemployment, caring for aging parents and illnesses. Add in several recessions and a global pandemic, and it's hardly surprising few find themselves flush with savings.
"Don't blame yourself," says Mark Miller, author of "Retirement Reboot: Commonsense Financial Strategies for Getting Back on Track." "There are probably good reasons why you're in the situation."
Don't despair either. The retirement math isn't quite as daunting as it initially appears. Social Security replaces on average about 40% of your current income. You'll need to fill in the remaining gap. That's not small, but it's more manageable than 100%.
Three Insights for Your Financial Journey 
There are several powerful levers you can pull that can enhance your financial security. The levers include delaying taking Social Security to boost your monthly benefit, working a few years past your anticipated retirement date, and tapping into home equity. Not every suggestion will make sense for your household and circumstances. But some combination of strategies can make a genuine difference in your late-life financial security.
"There are still things you can do that will have a positive impact."
"There are still things you can do that will have a positive impact," says Miller. "These aren't gimmicks."
Three basic framing insights can help you navigate your financial journey. First, you'll want to gain a deep knowledge of your household finances. What do you own? What do you owe? What are your expenses? These calculations offer invaluable information about the current state of household finances.
"You have to be real about where things are. You need situational awareness," says Joel Larson, a certified financial planner and founder of Navion Financial Advisors in Sacramento, California. "You can't guess. You have to put the data down."
Second, don't embark on your retirement journey alone. If your finances allow, hire a professional to help you create a roadmap for improving your economic security. Whether you hire a professional or not, everyone should tap into the life experiences and lessons learned by family and friends — people you trust, important members of your network. Their feedback and suggestions can help you winnow down your ideas into a winning strategy.
"Most of us have spent a lifetime building relationships and they're critical to our financial success," says Bradley Shurman, founder and chief executive of The Super Age, a global strategic research and advisory firm in Washington, D.C., focused on demographic change. "Good friends and family can give good advice about what works and what doesn't."
Third, the word "retirement" still retains a powerful association with full-time leisure. Rather than thinking about retiring, consider this stage of your life as an opportunity to explore what you would like to do next. What activity might offer both purpose and a paycheck in your next chapter.
"Good friends and family can give good advice about what works and what doesn't."
"You're retiring from one thing and going into what you prefer," says Nneka Constantino, a vice president and senior financial advisor with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in St. Paul, Minnesota. "Preferment is the new retirement."
Prepare to Pivot
These three steps help build a foundation for smart decision-making. Even the best plans can be upended, but knowing where you are and where you would like to go helps if the unexpected gives you a jolt. You'll probably have to pivot at some point. Like Peggy Schultz, age 62, did.
She worked in the authorization review department at a hospital in Bemidji, Minnesota. Her job was a big part of her identity. Mark, her husband, age 66, is a craftsman and artist. He has always worked but never had a regular income. They have enjoyed their work lives, including owning a small store for several years.
They never made much money, so they didn't salt away much in retirement savings. Peggy's plan was to work several more years and then retire. "I would have sat in front of a computer for another four years," she says.
Important Benefits
But last January she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Luckily, the cancer was caught early. She had major surgery and chemo treatment last year. After recovering, she returned to work in November but retired in January of 2023 and filed for Social Security.
Her husband also filed for Social Security, which is now their primary source of income. "It is important to us to live and breathe in each day knowing that each is a gift," she says. "And one that we treasure." (I'll return to this couple's financial strategy in a moment.)
Time to talk money. When it comes to financial security in retirement, the social insurance programs Social Security and Medicare are the two most important benefits. Spending time to understand each program is worth the investment.
The most important lever for typical workers is when to file for Social Security benefits. The argument for delay is persuasive. The monthly benefit is potentially 76% higher if you wait to start receiving benefits when you are 70 (the latest) rather than 62 (the earliest).
Social Security has established a "full retirement age" for everyone possessing one of its cards; the so-called FRA for each person is based on when he or she was born. (The current full retirement age or FRA is 67 years old for people reaching age 62 in 2023.)
Maximizing Social Security
Once you reach your full retirement age, you can postpone your benefit until you are 70; each year you postpone receiving the benefit it grows by 8%. You can't outlive your Social Security benefit and it comes with automatic cost of living adjustments.
Married couples should coordinate their claiming strategies to optimize their benefit. For instance, it often pays for the spouse with the higher benefit to postpone filing beyond his or her full retirement age. One advantage of this strategy is the surviving spouse can collect 100% of the deceased's benefit so long as the survivor has reached full retirement age or older.
You can't outlive your Social Security benefit and it comes with automatic cost of living adjustments.
(A good resource for learning more about filing strategies for married couples is "Get What's Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security," by the Boston University economist Laurence J. Kotlikoff and the journalists Philip Moeller and Paul Solman. Several online tools are also useful; they include Social Security Solutions and Maximize My Social Security.)
That said, filing early may well be the smart option for some people, including those in poor health, with caregiving responsibilities, and dealing with long-term unemployment. Think Peggy.
Understand Medicare
Medicare is the main health insurance program for people 65 years and older. The big choice is whether to join original Medicare or one of several Medicare Advantage plans offered by private insurance companies.
Advantage plans often cover services — such as dental and vision care — that are not included in original Medicare. But Advantage plans require you to use the plan's in-network health providers or be prepared to pay more for out-of-network services.
If you choose original Medicare with its greater flexibility, you will want to buy supplemental "Medigap" policies to help meet costs not covered by Medicare. (Every state offers a State Health Insurance Assistance Program help navigate the Medicare maze. The Medicare Rights Center offers a free national helpline to answer questions about benefits and enrollment decisions.)
Work a Little Longer
Working longer is another option for near-retirees without savings. One of the main benefits of putting in a few more months or years at work is it makes it practical to delay filing for Social Security. Even once you are receiving Social Security benefits, a job or jobs can supplement your income. You can still set aside some of your earnings into savings.
"The longer work can be sustained, the higher the retirement standard of living."
Take this calculation drawn from "The Power of Working Longer," a scholarly paper by four economists. After reviewing a variety of scenarios for people nearing retirement, the researchers found that if some employees work just one month longer they could increase their retirement income as much as if they had increased their 401(k) contributions from 6% to 7% of their salary (with a 3% employer match) over a decade.
Of course, many people put in more than one month. "Primary earners of ages 62 to 69 can substantially increase their retirement standard of living by working longer," write the scholars. "The longer work can be sustained, the higher the retirement standard of living. For example, retiring at age 66 instead of 62 increases living standards by about one-third."
Working longer is not a panacea. Deteriorating health is a major reason people retire earlier than they would like. Still, the working-longer decision does not have to be binary — more years on your old job or retire. People could shift to part-time work or jump to jobs with flexible hours.
Work for Yourself
Self-employment rises with age, sometimes by turning personal interests into a sources of income. For example, people who love to garden may start a small service business taking care of neighbors' gardens. "There are lots of ways to make money," says Shurman. "Monetize your passion."
Houses are the single largest asset for most older people. The homeownership rate for people 65 and older is roughly 80%, according to the Census Bureau. Among homeowners ages 65 to 74, home equity accounts for some 47% of their net worth.
A classic way to turn home equity into cash is to downsize (move to a smaller dwelling) or move to a cheaper location. If moving isn't desirable, you might want to consider a federally backed reverse mortgage. Reverse mortgages have had a checkered past, but the product has improved, and the option is worth learning about.
Your Largest Asset
Briefly, to qualify for the federally backed reverse mortgages (Home Equity Conversion Mortgages insured by the government account for about 90% of the market) you need to be at least 62 years old. You must live in the home and own the property outright or have paid much of the mortgage. No other debts can be attached to the home.
Much like taking out a conventional mortgage, you're required to verify your income, assets, monthly living expenses and show you have enough financial resources to pay for homeownership costs — homeowners' insurance, taxes and upkeep.
Loan value is determined by a formula that considers your age, the home's value and interest rates. You don't make any out-of-pocket payments on the loan. Instead, the reverse mortgage is paid off when the borrower moves out of the home or passes away. You'll never owe more than what the house is worth.
One Couple's Experience
These are some of the biggest levers people have to work with to build their financial security. Now, let's return to Peggy and Mark to see how they're handling finances.
"We need to right size. We want to have experiences that don't cost a fortune."
They have always lived fugally and, even though they don't have much in savings, they don't have any debt. No mortgage. No car loan. No credit card debt. They plan on selling their home in Bemidji and moving into a smaller place in Duluth that will not only come with lower maintenance costs but will be near children and grandchildren.
They just bought e-bikes and they're experimenting to see if they can get rid of one of their two cars by using e-bikes and public transportation more. Mark is on Medicare, and Peggy has health insurance, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. She will get a small pension from her former employer.
"We need to right size," says Schultz. "We want to have experiences that don't cost a fortune."
Assessing Next Steps
She's also trying to decide what comes next. What activity or activities will offer purpose and flexibility. One thought is becoming a docent at a museum. Teaching English as a second language also intrigues her.
Retirement is a major life transition. The handful of practical strategies offered here — and the many more ideas that you'll read in this series — can help you build a more secure financial future. What works for you will probably change with time. You can handle the uncertainty by investing in knowing more about your options.
"Take ownership of your process and your journey because it's your walk," says Constantino. "We're all going through it."


Not Ready for Retirement?

Chris Farrell

As a professional trustee and executor, I have seen hundreds of estate-planning documents, including some from do-it-yourself online services. I appreciate that using a DIY site to draft a will can save money and time. But I’m also concerned that sometimes doing it this way could lead to expensive and unpleasant estate planning mistakes.
I recently saw one DIY estate-planning service that had typos on its site and its estate-planning “packages” had the same document labeled with three different names. Worse, the packages I looked at were missing a key estate planning document which very few users would know to ask about.
This service, like many other DIY estate-planning sites, has attorneys on staff, but access to specific help for your personal documents is rarely available. If personal advice is offered, it then appears to cost a great deal more to receive.
But what if you don’t know which questions to ask?
Online DIY Wills Vs. Hiring a Professional
For some people with complicated personal and financial lives, today's complexities may not be fully addressed with a do-it-yourself service for wills and trusts. While many of us would prefer to fill in the blanks in silence than have to talk to anyone about our doubts or concerns, sometimes it helps — a lot — to get professional advice.
If you prepare your taxes yourself and they end up incorrect, you and the Internal Revenue Service may end up working things out. If you decide to do your estate planning by yourself,” however, you may never know the results of your work, but your loved ones will.  
There are lots of DIY options for completing your own estate plan, and they have been available almost as long as we have had the internet. (Longer, if you count all the software packages you could buy off the shelf.) With the ease and availability of these programs, and their low price, you might think more of us would have an up-to-date estate plan.
Yet according to the AARP article, Haven’t Done a Will Yet?, “only 4 in 10 American adults have a will or living trust.”
What Good Estate Planning Is All About
Our power to express our preferences is what good estate planning (or life planning), is all about. In my work as a trustee and executor, I’ve learned that the documents which provide me with detailed instructions are critical to avoid court involvement, to reduce administrative confusion and to know when our job is done.
The four basic estate planning documents: a will, a trust, power of attorney for financial matters and an advance health care directive. If you plan to use any or all of them through a DIY site, expect to be offered a fill-in-the-blank approach. Keep in mind that each state has its own probate code (the body of law governing estate planning and implementation). The software package you use may have different names for the same documents I have listed above.
Some of the DIY sites I visited have all of these documents for you, but only if you purchase their higher-end packages. Some offer limited attorney consultation; on one site, it was really a drop-down of questions with pre-written responses, not an actual conversation with an attorney.
Pros and Cons of DIY Estate Planning
The advantage of using a DIY service is that you will have a plan, as quickly and cheaply as possible, and that may be better than having no plan at all. This is especially true regarding getting a will, power of attorney and advance health care directive. Those handle most emergencies for people who don’t own real estate or much else.
The range of DIY services also has a range of prices — like $69 for just a will, to several hundreds of dollars for what may be described as a “complete plan.” Some sites have more information than others about their options.
Most presume that you already know what you want. But the reality is that many people have no idea what they want or need. Once you get into the complexities of family dynamics and perhaps trust language specific to your state and situation, DIY estate planning can cause more challenges than working with a team of professionals.
My Caution About DIY Online Wills
Here is my caution, based on my experience: You don’t know what you don’t know. You know some things about how you want to dispose of your assets after you die. What you may not know is all the case law and legislation that have evolved into your state’s probate code.
If you do decide to look for an attorney who specializes in estate planning, I recommend interviewing two or more. This way, you will get a feel for how each handles client relationships, payment, follow-up and his or her own succession. You may already have other trusted professionals (a cpa, a financial planner) who can refer you to estate planners in your area.
However you choose to get your plan completed, DIY or with the help of an experienced attorney, please get your estate plan done, and soon. You never know what surprises life will bring that will invoke your estate plan.


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