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A recent article in the NYTimes shows that age has little to do with career peaks. Which is great news for older adults, who, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, will outnumber those under 18 just 15 years from now. Award-winning author and poet Piero Rivolta is an example of creative aging and the ongoing process of reinvention. “It’s exhilarating to keep our minds moving,” Rivolta says. “And older people already have a vast warehouse of knowledge to share creatively.”  

About Piero Rivolta

Award-winning poet and author Piero Rivolta grew up in Milan, Italy in a family of automakers.  He left Italy and moved to Sarasota, Florida in 1980 with his wife Rachele, a painter.  He recently published Bridge Through the Stars which is his first novel since the publication of Journey Beyond 2012 and his Sarasota trilogy: Sunset in Sarasota, Alex and the Color of the Wind and The Castaway.  Piero is also the author of four poetry/prose collections: Just One Scent: The Rest Is God, Nothing Is Without Future, Going By Sea and One Life, Many Lives.  Piero and Rachele have two grown children, Renzo and Marella.

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USDA Partners to Improve Community Infrastructure for 1.1 Million Rural Americans

GILLETTE, Wyo., Oct. 8, 2018 – Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $181 million in 88 projects (PDF, 173 KB) that will build community infrastructure and facilities in 27 states.

“Infrastructure is a foundation for quality of life and economic opportunity in small towns across our country,” Hazlett said. “Under the leadership of Secretary Sonny Perdue, USDA is committed to being a strong partner to building prosperity in rural America through modern infrastructure.”

Hazlett announced the funding during a forum co-sponsored by the National Association of Counties and the National Association of Development Organizations Research Foundation. USDA is making the investments through the Community Facilities Direct Loan Program. The funding helps rural areas make infrastructure improvements and provide essential facilities such as schools, libraries and day care centers. For example:

• In Kansas, the city of Neodesha will use a $1.8 million loan to upgrade a city-owned natural gas system. All cast iron gas lines will be replaced, and gas meters will be relocated. The system improvement will serve about 2,500 residents.
• In North Carolina, the Thomas Jefferson Community Education Foundation will use a $27 million loan to construct a new high school and pay off existing debt. The new school will include a gymnasium and 29 classrooms to accommodate up to 440 students.
• In Ohio, the Monroe County Commissioners will use a $117,000 loan to purchase equipment to maintain 370 miles of rural roadways. The county will buy three trucks with snow plows, a backhoe, a tractor ditching head and a brush/tree chipper. This equipment will provide safer roads for the county’s 14,642 residents.

The projects announced today will help improve the quality of life for 1.1 million rural residents in Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.

More than 100 types of projects are eligible for Community Facilities funding. Eligible applicants include municipalities, public bodies, nonprofit organizations and federally and state-recognized Native American tribes. Applicants and projects must be in rural areas with a population of 20,000 or less. Loan amounts have ranged from $10,000 to $165 million.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Omnibus spending bill increased the budget for the Community Facilities Direct Loan and Grant program to $2.8 billion, up $200 million from FY 2017.

In April 2017, President Donald J. Trump established the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity to identify legislative, regulatory and policy changes that could promote agriculture and prosperity in rural communities. In January 2018, Secretary Perdue presented the Task Force’s findings to President Trump. These findings included 31 recommendations to align the federal government with state, local and tribal governments to take advantage of opportunities that exist in rural America. Increasing investments in rural infrastructure is a key recommendation of the task force.

To view the report in its entirety, please view the Report to the President of the United States from the Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity (PDF, 5.4 MB). In addition, to view the categories of the recommendations, please view the Rural Prosperity infographic (PDF, 190 KB).

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov.

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Has your definition of beauty

changed over time?

Are you happy with your appearance? If the answer is no, you are hardly alone.

The rise in gym memberships and cosmetic surgeries in recent years indicates as much, and surveys further underscore Americans’ insecurity with their looks. A study conducted at Chapman University and published in the journal Body Image found that women and men were about equally unimpressed with their own appearance. Out of 12,176 respondents, only 26 percent of women were “extremely satisfied” with their looks, and just 28 percent of men were.

Many people cite being overweight as their main appearance issue, but for others it’s often traced to the effects of aging. Confidence suffers collateral damage, says Dr. Dennis Schimpf, a plastic surgeon who adds that improving a physical flaw can become a quest to find “inner beauty” as well.

“Many people really aren’t confident in their own skin,” says Schimpf , author of Finding Beauty: Think, See And Feel Beautiful, and founder of Sweetgrass Plastic Surgery (www.sweetgrassplasticsurgery.com). “It’s often because different stages of life have different impacts on our body, our appearance, and how we feel about ourselves.

“The definition of beauty changes over time, but ultimately, you can’t just think it or see it; it also has to be felt. Not everyone needs plastic surgery nor is it going to fix every person’s life. But it can help improve a person’s sense of well-being.”

Schimpf says people can rate their own “body confidence” by answering these five questions in terms of low, moderate or high confidence:

• Are you satisfied with your outward appearance? “Low confidence scorers are usually feeling and seeing the effects of age and are frustrated, sensing that their physical flaws are affecting their self-identity,” Schimpf says. “Those on the high end say their physical flaws don’t detract from their overall happiness and productivity.”
• How self-conscious are you? Low confidence about appearance can worsen over time and hamper people in other areas. “These are people who feel their appearance and others noticing it makes them more self-conscious of other shortcomings they have,” Schimpf says. “As a result they feel hesitant to engage in some activities in order to avoid feeling judged and uncomfortable.”
• Are you reunion-ready? Many people are hesitant to attend high school reunions because their appearance has significantly worsened, in their mind, over the years. “If you were headed to a high school reunion tomorrow, where you were going to see people you have not seen in years, how confident would you feel?” Schimpf says. “Those rating low confidence will find some way not to go because of how they feel about themselves.”
• What physical change would you make? Just about everyone has a physical feature that bothers them. “It may be something you’ve had since childhood,” Schimpf says. “For women, it could be changes resulting from childbearing. For men and women, it can be the natural body changes that come with aging. On the other hand, many like the uniqueness that their body quirks give them, or they’ve lived with them so long they see no need to change.”
• Would making a physical change make a real difference in your life? “That’s a hard question people must ask themselves,” Schimpf says. “Those with low confidence usually say it would make everything better, from relationships to opportunities. Those of moderate confidence in themselves say fixing a flaw that bothers them wouldn’t change the other stressors in their life.”

“Whatever stage you’re at in life,” Schimpf says, “it’s important to see how your appearance relates to how you feel about yourself on the outside and on the inside.”

About Dennis Schimpf, MD, MBA, FACS

Dennis Schimpf (www.sweetgrassplasticsurgery.com) is the author of Finding Beauty: Think, See and Feel Beautiful, and the founder of Sweetgrass Plastic Surgery, a multi-faceted practice focusing almost exclusively on cosmetic plastic surgery of the face and body. He is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and American Board of Surgery and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), as well as a member of the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) and the American Society of Plastic Surgery (ASPS).

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