Love for Old Farts...

....is apparently BETTER than it is for young farts! SNAP! Hell yeah!

And despite the stereotypes, researchers who study emotions across the life span say old love is in many ways more satisfying than young love — even as it is also more complex, as the O’Connors’ example shows. - Kate Zirnike, NY Times, Love in the Time of Dementia

The news wires are alight with the story of former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. She left her high powered post to take care of her husband who is suffering from Alzheimer's. 48 hours after he entered his care facility, he fell in love with someone new. Oof, there's the rub, right?

Wrong, Sandy didn't seem to blink, she is completely happy for husband and his new love. She visits them and sits on the porch with them. What is that? According to the New York Times Sunday edition which eats up my weekend, it is plain and simply mature, selfless, old love. Thank god, something to look forward to as our bodies deteriorate.

Young brains tend to go to extremes — the swooning or sobbing so characteristic of young love. Old love puts things in soft focus.

“As you get older you begin to recognize that this isn’t going to last forever, for better or for worse,” said Laura L. Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity and a research counterpart of Dr. Gabrieli’s in the brain imaging research.

“You understand that the bad times pass, and you understand that the good times pass,” Dr. Carstensen said. “As you experience them, they’re more precious, they’re richer.”

- Kate Zirnike, NY Times, Love in the Time of Dementia