BKBert Keller

1. Article · Sep 14, 2026 · Bert Keller

   Aging for Amateurs: Packing up and letting go at the same time, downsizing and farewells (opens the original)

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   Wendell Berry, a great soul who spoke through a lifetime of farming and poetry about loving and protecting the land, died recently at the age of 92. For most of his years, Berry lived in a rural farmhouse on the Kentucky River. “Here as well as anyplace I can look out my window and see the world,” he said. Berry had an old writing shack down on the bank of the river where he went for solitude, a place especially dear to him. When the river flooded and swamped his shack, he salvaged its materials

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2. Article · Aug 3, 2026 · Bert Keller

   Aging for Amateurs: Odysseus and his travels can teach us about making peace with the past (opens the original)

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   “My soul, thy voyages have been thy native land!” Those are the words of Odysseus in Nikos Kazantzakis’ epic poem “The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel.” At this point, he has finished 10 years of war under the walls of Troy and 10 years of breathtaking adventure on the voyage home, he has cleaned house back in Ithaca and reunited with his wife, Penelope. Now what? What do I do now? See him standing on the Ithaca shore, realizing that his native land is an active verb, not a static noun. Chris

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3. Article · Jul 20, 2026 · Bert Keller

   Aging for Amateurs: Asking an elder or a patient how they are doing can open Pandora’s box (opens the original)

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   Seniors are notorious for answering a friendly “How’re you doing?” with an organ recital. People familiar with us hide or use a different greeting! But why do we do that? If the inquiry is sincere as to how we are, why do we go automatically to our operations, aches and pains, indigestion or bowel habits? Does that tell how (or who) we really are? That question brings up for me a memory from the early days of the Department of Family Medicine at MUSC. The chairman invited Dr. Paul Freeling

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