Course instructor Deborah Bier, PhD (photo, below right) has been a health care educator, author, and wellness coach for over 20 years. She holds a doctorate in therapeutic counseling, and has helped hundreds of individuals and families to live better with chronic illness and disability. She is the director of the Concord, MA office of Caring Companion Home Care. (www.CaringCompanion.Net) and has lived in Concord for 30 years.

Middlesex Community College's MILES Program (Middlesex Institute for Lifelong Education for Seniors) offers intellectual stimulation, interaction, and friendship for adults ages 50+. Some of the topics explored through MILES include history, politics, arts, fitness, health, safety, music, computers, internet, travel, business, psychology, law, poetry and opera. Courses have no term papers, exams or grades, and are held at their Bedford campus. They are facilitated by individuals with expertise in topics based on professional, educational or personal experience. Semester membership fee of $95 includes access to all MILES courses. MILES is an afffiliate of the Elderhostel Institute Network.

For more information or to register, call 781-280-3570 or e-mail Chris Lindsey at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Find a list of all their courses here. To reach the instructor, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

When it comes to fulfilling our greatest potential as human beings experiencing aging, do we really know what truly excellent aging looks like? Just what is possible for elders? How much resilience and adaptation to change are possible as we age? How many unfounded assumptions are we making about what is possible for us as we age, despite our imperfect health? And how do those assumptions keep us from helping elders from experiencing the best lives possible?

I am of the school that says, "we know a lot less than we think we know," and every day I work to provide home care and family support through CCC, I have to admit: even a really, really, REALLY open-minded and optimistic person like myself -- a person who absolutely thrills at having her mind expanded when it comes to the possibilities of human potential -- even I have limiting assumptions about aging that are much better discarded.

Which is why I just love the four links I'm about to pass along: they each remind me that we never know what is truly possible... that it's likely what we believe is the outer reaches of human aging today are going to be considered laughably limited in 10 years.

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