Pamela Cuming

The Mortality Club

Beware the Shrinking Comfort Zone

November 19, 2016

Tags: comfort zone, tension, curiosity, growing old

Last Tuesday I had an 11:00 appointment with my cardiologist. She�s in Seattle, which is ninety miles from where I live. A few years ago, I didn�t think twice about driving down and back. It was, as they say, �a piece of cake.� My husband, David, used to accompany me. We would use the appointment as an opportunity to get out of the house and do something interesting. Often, we�d go out to lunch and then spend the afternoon at the art museum. Or, we�d explore the new technology offerings at the Apple store. Or, we�d just walk the city streets getting what I called our �city fix.�

We scarcely noticed when we made the transition from voluntarily accompanying one another to medical appointments to the stage when it became necessary. Driving both ways and enduring the inevitable stress of a medical examination became too fatiguing for me. We got to the point when one of us would drive down, and the other, drive back. As that happened,I began to find it too physically demanding to see the doctor and then fill the day with other diversions, especially since those other diversions were located in the center of town, even further from our home. �We�ll see the exhibit next time,� I'd suggest to David. �After all, we don�t want to get stuck in rush hour traffic.� (more…)

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Selected Works

Psychology/Aging and Dying

The Hourglass: Life as an Aging Mortal

In youth we are invincible. The world is forever: we are forever. But, sentient creatures that we are, time inevitably plays its part. Aging and illness shadow those early sensibilities until one day we feel the lurking presence of death itself. Fearful of our own dark thoughts, too often we keep such anxieties to ourselves. To deny our own mortality is a parlor game of sorts, played within our own heads and frequently played alone. Pamela Cuming will have none of it. In her latest book, The Hourglass, she throws back the parlor curtains and lets the light stream in. This is a powerful, objective, unflinching, and yet profoundly empathic work that explores the rewards of honest caring⎯the privilege and the pain⎯not only for one�s friends and family but also for one�s self. Drawing upon an uncanny intuitive understanding of human foible plus a broad knowledge of character development, honed from decades of consulting in the business world, this is a book filled with personal stories both engaging and instructive. In short, The Hourglass is a must read for all those who seek to live life to the full, from start to finish. ________________ Peter C. Whybrow MD, Director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Beavior at UCLA and award-winning author of The Well-Tuned Brain: Neuroscience and the Life Well Lived.

Fiction: Publication Date Nov 14, 2014

The Stranger Box

Set in New York City and Los Angeles between August 1999 and November 2001, The Stranger Box is the story of a mother and a daughter caught like two white dwarf stars in separate orbits, destined to collide. Though she does everything in her considerable power to insure the child never finds out who she is, the vain and self-obsessed Katherine Blair is unable to change the course of her destiny or evade Eden, the resourceful daughter whose pursuit is fueled by the desire for revenge and the determination to steal the family that has been denied her.

Memoir

Widow's Walk

Widow�s Walk is a bold, brave, and candid admission of bereavement, weakness, and, ultimately, strength.

Nonfiction

The Power Handbook

A strategic guide to organizational and personal effectiveness

Turf and Other Corporate Power Plays

Turf is a direct, and sometimes disturbing book about the use and abuse of power in organizations.