>> hardaway: on this edition of the best times we ask the question: do people get happier as they age? you'll meet the gifted artist mary norman. and we'll remember the devastating record flood of 1937.
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been such a hoot. trezevantmanor-dot-org. hello, i'm cris hardaway. welcome to this edition of the best times, a series that looks at life after fifty. it was thomas jefferson who penned the words, "pursuit of happiness".
you'd be hard pressed to find the concept of happiness mentioned in any other political treatise, especially one so rebellious in its nature as our own declaration of independence. thankfully jefferson didn't try to define happiness for americans.
that's up to us. are you happy? there's a surprising body of research that points to the conclusion that people actually get happier as they get older. maybe it takes a lifetime pursing happiness to finally catch up with it.
>> hardaway: are you happier now than when you were younger? and why or why not? >> oh, i'm happier now but probably because i'm a little older and a little wiser. >> i'm happy now because i'm enjoying life. >> oh, i think i'm happier now.
i've got grandchildren. i'm retired. i can play with them and yeah, life is good. >> i'm happier now in a different because now i know where i am and where i'm going where as when i was younger, i wasn't sure and i was searching.
but i'm very content and very happy. >> i had a very happy childhood but i will say i'm probably as happy now. >> i was probably happier when i was younger, had better health. >> i'm more content. i'm not trying to achieve
anymore. i'm enjoying what i have. >> often times when we're younger, we're doing things that we have to do or we feel like we need to do but now i can do what i want to do. and i love it. >> i've learned a lot and i know
how to be happier. >> it's not about material things but it's about having the relationships with your family and your friends. that's what makes me happy. >> hardaway: the stanford center on longevity identifies what they call the "paradox of aging"
--- the recognition that we won't live forever changes our perspective on life in positive, not negative, ways. to find out more about the link between aging and happiness i invited two guests into our studio. sarah prosser is the
administrative assistant for the professional network on aging. and dr. richard lightsey is associate professor of counseling psychology at the university of memphis. i want to begin by asking the two of you the same question that i asked those people at the
germantown senior expo. are you happier now than when you were younger? sarah, let's start with you. >> prosser: well, i believe i'm happier now because there's less stress about peer pressure. if you were smart when you're younger to try to save money and
be prepared for your retirement, then your retirement should be pleasant and enjoyable with your friends and making your own plans and doing as you please. >> hardaway: so you're happier now? >> prosser: i think i am. >> hardaway: alright dr.
lightsey, how about you? >> lightsey: definitely-in fact, i've noticed every decade, i've been happier than the previous decade. >> hardaway: well, that's interesting. go on. >> lightsey: i think this
mirrors the literature quite nicely in that i have better social relations, deeper friendships that i have. i allocate my time better than i used to, i think, doing things that most enjoy and that get me the most meaning. i've met many of the goals that
i've set for myself. and for others that i haven't yet reached, like writing the great american novel, i've kind of toned it down about, you know, to writing scholarly products that continue to knowledge in the field and maybe an occasional creative essay
that i've yet to get to. >> hardaway: is it just life experience that we're better at life now as we get older that makes us happier as we age? what are your thoughts? >> prosser: maybe out expectations are different, too. >> hardaway: expectations?
what role do you feel expectations play? >> prosser: well, you know, you have a utopia in the beginning thinking everything's always just going to be way, way high but realistic, we're going to live more realistically that everything is not up here and
you learn to live within this perimeter perhaps. >> hardaway: what does science say about expectations? what does psychology say? >> lightsey: expectations are important and calibrating your expectations to reality and what you actually may get is also
important. there's quite a bit of evidence that older adults relative to younger adults are less sensitive to negative life events, sad and disturbing music, other kinds of negative stimulation. and so young people react much
more strongly. and it's been theorized in fact and there are at least a couple of studies supporting it that decrease in amygdala functioning might to some degree account for the lower negative affect that older people have compared to younger people.
i don't think that explains all of it though because older adults also have more positive emotion and life satisfaction than younger adults. >> hardaway: does our definition of happiness change as we age? has it changed for you? >> prosser: i just think we
learn the important things. perhaps when we're younger, we're going lots of different directions not knowing but once we know ourselves and know what brings our joy. joy comes from within and happiness are for outer things. and as you grow older, you
still, if you're active, you're still doing lots of things but the happiness-you don't go helter-skelter. you sort of have a plan and not having a time table on doing certain things. you can do more of what you want, when you want to do it.
>> lightsey: older people experience less intense or calmer positive feelings and looking in myself, i think the happiness that i feel now is a calmer sort of happiness than maybe i felt at peak moments in younger life. >> hardaway: is it the fact that
we all mellow out as we age? the highs aren't as high. the lows aren't as low. >> lightsey: i think that's one way of saying it. yeah, i think that's correct. >> hardaway: let's talk about health and the role that it plays in this equation of happy
as we age. what factor does health play? >> prosser: my little theory goes back with how you were in your 20s. when you're 80, if you're happy then, you're happy now even with bad illnesses. >> lightsey: health is a strong
predictor of happiness. healthier people tend to be happier. btu it's also true among older people that even though they report bigger discrepancies compared to younger people in the health they want to have, that is health aspirations
versus the health they actually have, they're still happier. and possibly that's because they've achieved their goals or have downgraded their goals. there's less of a discrepancy between the social and achievement related goals they had and ones that they've
accomplished. and so but it does look like if you look across people that older people can maintain higher happiness despite health problems. and i believe although i don't know of evidence about that that some of that is about acceptance
of things, acceptance of mortality, acceptance of limitations, and just seeing that as a natural part of life and compensating by finding other things that give joy as capacities in particular realms diminish. >> hardaway: are there keys to
happiness? do you feel like there are certain things that you can check off? if i do a, b, c, d, i'll be >> prosser: i wanted to share these little things that i heard the other day. it was something of what we're
talking about now. and then the title fits so well with what we were talking about. and number one was "be sure that we're right with god." and number two was "maintain that positive attitude." and we we're just mentioning that.
and maintain a sense of humor. you know, we seniors need to have our humor. take care of your physical health. and then, the spirit of thanksgiving and gratitude. >> lightsey: i really like that. and in fact, there's studies in
progress showing and there's a literature showing that learning to be grateful for things does predict more happiness. >> hardaway: i had read this statement which i'll paraphrase but basically it says that "happiness is a journey, not a destination."
what do you think about that? >> prosser: that's good. i like that. >> hardaway: do you find that true in your own life? >> prosser: mhmm, mhmm. >> lightsey: reminds me of the flow literature showing that in so far as we can immerse our
self in the stream of experience and be here now. and there is evidence that other adults are more here and now than younger adults and that that partly accounts for their increased happiness. but yeah, i think the idea of being able to flow with
experience and of happiness being a process of learning to immerse yourself in the here and now in the activities that you value and to give meaning is very important. >> hardaway: i'd like to thank both of you for being on "the best times" and i wish both of
you a very happy day. >> hardaway: they say that art imitates life. but ask an artist and they'll tell you that life -- their life -- often dictates the content and scope of the art they produce. such is the story of mary
norman, whose art show here at wkno's gallery ten ninety-one is somewhat of a comeback story for one of the most gifted painters in memphis. take a look at this portrait of mary norman. >> norman: i always drew. and i was an only child and i
just always drew to entertain myself. in school, you know, still living at home when i was a kid, my dad got me a little easel. and i set it up in my bedroom and i went to bed with the smell of oil paint turpentine and woke up to it.
that's just-that was, you know, i couldn't put it down. i couldn't wait to get home from school so i could paint some more. >> hardaway: mary norman's passion for painting has been a driving force in her life. but oddly she took a twelve year
break from the canvas and the work that she loved. more about that in a moment. take a look at some of mary's pieces from the eighties and nineties and you'll see the delicate craftsmanship of a largely self-taught artist whose early work was inspired by a
trip to the tate gallery in london to see a salvador dali retrospective. >> norman: and i was just amazed at his surfaces. the detail in the surfaces were just so incredibly beautiful. and when i came home, i just started trying to paint life out
as much as possible. not a lot of heavy brush stokes. just pretty much no texture. they almost like glass and yet, so highly detailed. so i kind of taught myself that, just, you know, trial and error over the years. a lot of my paintings were very
surreal and kind of quirky and dark and strange things that i had. images came from dreams a lot. >> hardaway: this is arguably mary's most recognizable work - the 1992 memphis in may poster saluting italy. it shined a spotlight on her
talent. >> norman: memphis in may poster was a commission. so i did try very hard to please everybody and not sacrifice, you know, not do something i didn't like. but that's why there's a lot of things packed in to that.
there were little hidden things and little things that weren't really obvious. you know, people were finding lines to classical music and the post modern chair and all kinds of other little things. so it was kind of almost like a puzzle.
so it, yes, it went over. it went over pretty well. >> hardaway: her work has been shown in galleries throughout the country and she's sold every painting she finished. >> norman: i made a living at art. i was really organized and i
devoted all my time to it for a long time. and then i had my only child when i was 45. >> hardaway: sometimes life gets in the way of art. her only son robert was born -- then her father had a stroke -- and then came her diagnosis.
>> norman: i had a little bit of ovarian cancer and it just turned out to be a kind that was not terribly aggressive. it makes you think what is really important in life. and, you know, makes you reprioritize. and i knew immediately without
any question that obviously my son was my first priority but that i did want to get back to art someday. but it just wasn't time yet. >> hardaway: mary took a twelve year hiatus from painting. >> norman: life got in the way. i would get something ready to
paint on and i would try to sketch and i just couldn't make myself sketch. so it just, yeah, it went away for a really long time. i sort of missed it but i occupied myself with other things. >> hardaway: this year mary has
returned to painting. she's prepping for a show at our own galley ten ninety-one at the wkno studios. she calls the show "a minute and a half of summer", inspired by the photographs she took on two
vacations to new england. the paintings are about the same size as the photos she's working from and they have an unusual canvas. >> hardaway: i've got so many little projects going on around this fixer-upper house that i just had some scraps of wood.
and i happened to have them just about the right size. so i did the first painting. and as i said, it came about so easily and it was just that little chunk of wood was so nice to hold. it was just really nice to handle.
so these paintings are much more straight forward and kind of simple, just sunsets and, you know, beach scenes, and close- ups of lanterns and interesting things that i find. it's just i hate to say easy but i'm not going to stress about it.
i mean, it's been 12 years since i've painted and if i feel like painting a pretty tree or a nice sunset, i'm not going to feel guilty about it because i think, you know, having gone to art classes in college, they, you know, say that pretty isn't art. and you know, it's got to be
important that that. and that's all very true. but i just was putting to many limits on myself, too many limits on what i thought i should allow myself to do and i've just kind of thrown all that away. the physical aspect of aging and
just what i've gone through in life, they all point to the same place which is just don't stress about the details that much. just kind of do your best. if it looks good, be happy with and don't try to change it. i've always felt that an artist, a true artist, is somebody who's
in a position to really do something good for the world. and that's not to say-oh, we're so important. and-oh, you know, i've got all the answers. but there are problems. and if you can help people look at their problems and just have
some hope that there's a way out, you know, i think that's good work. >> hardaway: some of you watching will remember january of 1937 when the rains came and didn't stop until parts of 31 states were underwater. here the mississippi river
crested at over 48 feet, a record that still stands today. memphis became an island of refuge for tens of thousands left homeless by the flooding. historian patrick o'daniel records the human drama in his book memphis and the super flood of 1937.
>> (rain pouring) >> o'daniel: tremendous rain storms hit the ohio and mississippi valleys january 1st of 1937 and caused tremendous flooding in both valleys at the same time. cities like cincinnati and louisville completely flooded
and had to be evacuated. >> hardaway: flooding stretched all along the ohio and mississippi valleys, from west virginia to louisiana. more than 21 inches of rain fell in january of 1937 and over eight million acres of land were underwater creating what one
newspaper called, "a lake the size of ireland". one and a half million people were affected by this disaster. and memphis became a refuge for thousands. >> o'daniel: at one point, february of '37, one in five people in memphis was a refugee.
so we had between fifty and sixty thousand refugees come through memphis in about a month of period. one family in particular i can think of that water came up through the floorboards. the husband runs out, hooks up the mules to the wagon, gets his
wife, gets his kids out in there. and by this point the water is up to the wheels. they get about a mile down the road and the hooves of the mules are no longer touching the ground. the wheels aren't touching the
ground neither. the only thing that keeps them from sinking below the waves is a momentum of the mule swimming towards the levee. people got out with basically the clothes on their backs. a lot of them traveled to memphis on foot.
so they're cold, wet, and of course, sick. so once they got to memphis, they had to be quarantined. first thing the city did was to close down the fairgrounds and use the fairgrounds amusement park as a refugee camp. national guardsmen came in.
other volunteers built additional barracks to house refugees that were coming in. there were over a thousand of them coming in a day. once the fairgrounds filled to capacity, the city shut down all the schools. and all the schools were used as
hospitals. >> hardaway: eight thousand refugees were hospitalized and cared for by the red cross and volunteers from the memphis medical community. even by today's standards it is amazing how quickly and efficiently the city was able to
act in this crisis. and how generously people opened up their hearts and their wallets. >> o'daniel: when people would give money, the donations were listed in the newspaper in the commercial appeal-the name and how much money they gave.
and you saw people like boss crump and some big business owners giving large amounts of money. but you go down the list all the way to the end and there are children giving change to help out. and it's remarkable how much
money was raised not just locally but across the whole country for this. keep in mind this is 1937. this is the depths of the depression. people were still giving everything they possibly could and it took almost no time at
all for them to organize and get started. >> hardaway: in spite of the generosity of memphians, life in the camps wasn't comfortable. >> o'daniel: the buildings that were used to house the refugees weren't really made for housing refugees.
i mean, the cattle barn was not a place for people. the automobile building wasn't really a place for people. but volunteers from the red cross and memphians who came in to help out did the best they could. the city provided entertainment,
different musical acts that came through. at one point a circus came through to entertain the kids. church groups came in. people sang songs, watched movies, things like that. but memphians did what they could to make the refugees as
comfortable as possible. >> hardaway: in the midst of this disaster e. h. crump took issue with the way mayor watkins overton was handling the recovery. so the boss took charge. >> o'daniel: crump personally led flood control efforts on the
nonconnah creek. so he stayed out there night and day, you know, directing people and saying - here, take the steam shovel over there. you guys move sand bags over you know, he took it upon himself to do it. and yes, that did cause friction
with the mayor because the mayor is saying - we've already taken care of this. you really don't need to be doing this. there were some problems there. it's like, well, who's really running this city. and by the end of the flood, it
was plainly clear it was boss crump. >> hardaway: two years later crump was elected mayor for the third time. he was sworn in, promptly resigned and turned the reigns over to his protã©gã© walter chandler.
on february 18th the flooding ended and the storm-weary refugees slowly began to return to what was left of their homes. the exact number of flood- related deaths remains unclear, but the flood left over three billion dollars of damage in its wake, prompting the federal
government to beef up flood control along the ohio river and in memphis. when the mississippi river began to rise again in 2011 to near- record levels, the flood control measures held the waters in check. but as patrick o'daniel notes,
we have an uneasy truce with old man river. >> o'daniel: we know that we developed these areas that used to be run-offs for the mississippi river. all these swamp lands and stuff like that that used to absorb all the floods.
well, the river doesn't know so we basically had this very loose truths with the river. the river will come back and claim that land. it often does. >> hardaway: i hope you'll join me next week for more of "the best times".
until then please visit our website where you can watch past shows and get more information about life after fifty. and while you're online email us your comments and story ideas. thanks for watching - i'm cris hardaway. goodnight.
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