Why You Should Watch Stallone's Netflix Bio, Healthspan vs. Lifespan

Plus: Madeira Gardens and Weekly Roundup

Author

Kristen
November 21, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

🦃🍂🥧Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers! 🦃🍂🥧
Hope you have a lovely holiday.

In this issue of Notes on the Road:

  • Why you should watch Sylvester Stallone’s Netflix special.

  • Healthspan and lifespan in What Retirees Want.

  • Weekly Roundup worth reading, watching, and listening.

  • Monte Palace Gardens in Madeira, Portugal.

  • Wisdom from George Burns.

Let’s get started!

Why You Should Watch Sylvester Stallone’s Netflix Special

I’m not sure why Sly appeared in my Netflix queue last night, but I’m sure glad it did.

I took a chance and clicked, and what unfolded was a moving — and surprising — rumination on aging, loss, and regret. It described universal truths about getting older, both beautiful and hard.

I have no particular attachment to Sylvester Stallone. I recall reading somewhere once that, as a person, he had real depth, and that his real gift was writing.

Boy, did that come across. Here, he’s weathered and wise and wry.

At 77, he shares what he’s learned along the way. There are too many lessons to list here, but in one of my favorites, he talks about how he’s struggled to remain relevant, to still feel like he has something to contribute. He reflects on his late-career failures experimenting with complex movie roles:

I started to get disenchanted with myself. I go, ‘Well, maybe that’s a natural migration into obsolescence.’ Maybe that’s the journey, you know? Everyone can’t be, you know, at the top of their game forever. I realized that at that point, it’s important to stay in your own lane, to become a specialist. Like an artist. You have that style, you’re a Rothko, and no one can do Rothko better than Rothko. Everyone goes, ‘Oh, we can do the full spectrum. We can be anything.’ No you can’t. You have certain manifest weaknesses and great strengths. And I said, focus on the strengths. Don’t sit there and try to do Shakespeare when you look like me.

And then there’s this reflection on loss, and all of the places we find it:

I’ve always wanted to take Rocky I and [his last movie Rocky Balboa] and put it together and show how fast life goes by. Life is addition up until age 40 and after that it’s subtraction. Your children are moving out, your friends are moving on, some dying, job is gone. Gone. It’s loss.

In these quotes, and many more, Stallone captures the truth of aging. That it all goes so fast. That we change, the world changes around us, and we must adapt. But his courage in moving on is inspiring. And as he closes the show, he reminds us of his legacy, of the characters that remain with us. He wants us to look at life on a positive note. And he leaves us with that parting thought:

I want to somehow show hope. I’m in the hope business and I just hate sad endings, sorry.

Definitely worth a watch.

Bite Sized Book Review: What Retirees Want

This week, we look at Chapter 6: Searching for the Fountain of Health: Can We Match Healthspan to Lifespan? In this chapter, the authors explore the role of health in retirement.

Health is retirement's "wild card." It can make the difference between a good retirement and a bad one. And, health and wealth are intertwined. Those with wealth can invest in it, and when bad health occurs, it can unravel financial plans quickly. Example: 58% of retirees in the US retire sooner than planned, and the number one reason is due to ill health.

The real goal is healthspan, not lifespan. It’s about how long we live in full health rather than in years. This is also what we’re solving for when choosing the right place to age.

The authors describe four retiree health “styles” ranging from very actively engaged in staying healthy, to struggling with chronic conditions and competing priorities, to those uninterested in health but healthy anyway.

The bottom line? Know that health plays a major role in a successful retirement, and plan for the ways that it may impact your emotional and financial well-being.

Increase your healthspan by reading this newsletter!

The Weekly Roundup

Worth your time to watch, read, and listen.

🎞️ What is it with me and the action heros this week? I don’t know, but I’m going to very highly recommend Arnold, a three-part docuseries on the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold, late in life, is an inspirational force for good. Hard to believe? Try it. (Three one-hour episodes)

 📰 How to Know When It’s Time to Retire. “Wait too long, and you might regret the extra years you gave to work. Leave too early, and you could feel lost in your new life.” Just one of many terrific nuggets of wisdom here. (5 min. read)

👟The #1 Exercise to Do As You Get Older. Every little bit helps. (3 min. read)

🎞️ Bonus just for fun: Please meet Cecilia, a young Swedish woman who lives with her boyfriend and dog in her insanely cozy cabin in Svalbard, an island near the North Pole. Check in each week to see what it’s like to live through the four-month polar night. My guilty pleasure each week!

💡💡We’d love to hear from you! Anything you’d like to see in the Weekly Roundup? Any burning topics you’d like us to write about? Comments, questions, feedback? Let us know. 💡💡

Monte Palace, Madeira, Portugal

From our friends in the International Division at 89 Days Away (i.e., my husband), please enjoy this brief walking tour of Monte Palace Gardens in Madeira, Portugal.

❝

If you ask what is the single most important key to longevity, I would have to say it is avoiding worry, stress and tension. And if you didn't ask me, I'd still have to say it.

George Burns

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