Want to live better and longer? Stop searching the internet; talk to your brain. Key points Purpose, whether socially significant or not, can increase the quantity and quality of life. Purpose should contain at least one of three attributes: long-lasting, positive, and filled with surprises. With age, our world shrinks. Purpose can stop the decline. When a friend in her late 80s called and said, “I’m ready to leave,” I understood she wasn’t talking about a place. She had been

Personal Perspective: Is retirement a social death or a rebirth? Key points Retirement carries a risk of what sociologists call social death. Social death is not inevitable. Remaining socially engaged is the key to flourishing in retirement. Social death can be turned into social rebirth, setting the occasion for a meaningful retirement. At the end of August of this year, following a long (45 years) and rewarding career as a college professor, I retired from my position of Pr