YouandTheTarot

  "Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale" opens with a panning by the camera of faces from that loved television series.  Attending a theatrical event are Lord Grantham, American wife Cora, Mary, Edith/Spouse and more. How much comfort that brings. It's simple and instant, like hearing the whistle from a tea kettle.  But there's a hole. Missing is Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess. She has passed over. SPOILER ALERT Darkness Falls But, soon enough we're pulled into the pall overhanging the old world order. It is 1930.  Much of the Crawley money has been lost. Cora had entrusted that to her American brother Harold Levinson and he had been conned by shady Gus Sambrook. Debt has to be paid off. What's left has to be used prudently.  Lord Grantham hasn't bounced back from his mother's death.  Mary gets hit with a divorce decree from Henry Talbot. As soon as that intel gets out, she mutates into a social pariah. High Society shuns her as well as Downton Abbey....

  Lake Erie is the jewel of the Midwest. Yes, it even has waves. Some winters the waves freeze in motion. The designs are awesome.  Well, throughout Ohio you can gaze at Lake Erie, have a picnic or family celebration near it or swim in it. Sure, bring the dog. Mine, who is now passed over, had run on the beach.  There is no fee. Not for entrance to the state parks and not for parking in them. It doesn't matter if you're not a resident of Ohio or if your license plate is from another state. Clients love to have tarot readings there and then afterward reflect standing by the water.  That's Ohio.  Today I traveled from Toledo, Ohio to Michigan to experience Lake Erie in what I hoped would be a different way. That was to Sterling State Park in Monroe. I hoped for something a bit different.  Shock. As I drove into the park there was a gatekeeper. Wow. I stopped my car and asked if I needed a sticker or something. They inquired if I was from another state. I ans...

  The Dow started out disappointing today but here it is. Up.  Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Index: DJI Compare 45,496.60 USD ▲  +95.74 (+0.21%) today September 8, 3:54 PM EDT  ·  Market Open  Not much but we in BoomerVille will take it. Gigs are fewer and more of my over-65 clients are either packing it in on chasing employment or starting micro enterprises. Incidentally, many of the latter are successful. Up to recently, with the bull market, we basked in the real possibility that we could make it into our late 80s and maybe into our 90s without running out of funds. That was a sealed emotion. We let nothing else in.  After all, we've witnessed too many aging who looked much older than their age propped up in front of buildings, getting a few winks. Not us. We'd do whatever it takes to not be them. My car looks like hell but as long as it runs I'll stick with it. Instead of taking on again the expense risks associated with home ownership I'll re...

Use the term "ethics" on your social networks and you probably won't get many page views. Not so for any terms for "networking."  That's why families pay coaches $200 to $1,000 an hour or from $10,000 to $50,000 for a package to assist in having their offspring admitted to an Ivy such as Harvard. And, once in the door Harvard undergrads know what counts are the contacts made. So, the ethical issues of how society enables networking haven't gotten much attention. Until now. Powerful thought leaders, politicos and even ambitious parents might start focusing on this.  The New York Times published an explosive long-form feature about how very bad guy Jeffrey Epstein went about being a "collector of people."  A core focus of the article is whether JP Morgan Chair and CEO Jamie Dimon was in that collection. Had Dimon been aware of Epstein as a prized client or did his team shield him from that source of lucrative business introductions for the ban...

"It'll get better in college." That's what those who sized us up as so disconnected in high school promised us. With the exception of the star athletes, beautiful girls and those elected to leadership positions, most of us experienced the unique pain of feeling we didn't belong. Nor did we assume we deserved to.  College was better. So was participating in the career game. But, apparently not so much that we could build a solid sense of self, safety and self-love in our post-high school journey. The Atlantic documents that many of us are returning to that time. Or at least assuming that in some ways we are. In tarot readings clients express enthusiasm about attending their high school reunions. Also, there is fear that they will again boomerang back into total insecurity. So, why is this happening?  From my own life and from what I piece together from what clients share I get it that life has become too much to navigate smoothly. Although high school was bad, it ...

America is the land of extreme optimism. Apply individual hustle and be willing to take risks. Here comes The Big Score.  So, of course, that magician mindset has been applied to continuing being a successful leader, worker, founder and, yes, coach when aging. The assumption, which is embedded in the tarot's The Magician card, is that you can pull together all the possible elements of success and channel them into whatever you're up to.  Sure, sometimes that happens.  After early stumbles in his second round at Disney CEO Bob Iger, 74, reset for the new media landscape. The consensus on Wall Street   is a Strong Buy or a Buy. Paul, Weiss long-term chair Brad Karp, 65, has been landing new lucrative M&A accounts, despite the uncertainties created by the Trump administration. In generative AI, Paul, Weiss is the first law firm to launch, partnering with Harvey, custom work flows . Those create new value for clients. Now 94, Rupert Murdoch got the hang of social net...

  "I gave up looking for The Big Score. And from gig assignments and operating a micro used furniture business I made enough to buy a mobile home as a getaway." That's the voice of content aging. And when I hear it during a tarot reading I label it Lowering Expectations.   It could solve the critical problem of needing additional income from work post age 65. That is, let go of chasing the power, influence and peak earnings of a former career. Until you do, employers and customer/clients for your enterprise will get the vibes that, yes, you expect too much.  Lowering the bar also extends to so many other aspects of life when aging. For example, that to-do list. You set yourself up for cursing aging if you put deadlines on completing the items. The odds are you won't make those deadlines. You might "get tired" by late afternoon.  There's also driving. No question, you're still competent. But maybe not for doing it at night or with too many left hand t...