Book Review: Changing with Aging: Little Stories, Big Lessons

What lessons have you learned over the course of your life? Richard Weijo takes a look at the book, Changing with Aging by Don Kuhl and shares his thoughts.

2 min read.

Don Kuhl, the Author of Changing with Aging has a very different style of writing than I do.

While I prefer to be the architect to design an overall structure to my thoughts and let others fill in some of the details, Don is the epitome storyteller. He would prefer to find an old house and then spend his time filling each room with personal items that have a meaningful history and story-to-tell.

In his book, Don focuses on the lessons he has learned from a full and creative life. He picks ten themes (or rooms) to fill with stories.

Some examples of these themes include Storing Happy Memories, Staying Silly, Giving Love, Gobbling Up Knowledge, Accepting What Is, along with several others. Each theme includes between fifteen and twenty-five personal life stories.

Many of these stories are quite humorous and joyous. Don is like an experienced interior designer who picks the right collage of wall colors, fabric, pictures, vintage, and memorabilia to highlight each theme.

Most of these very personal stories are only one page, weaving together learnings from his childhood, through adulthood, and into his more senior years.

Changing with Aging reminds me of an inspirational coffee table book.

It can be located so that it can be easily accessible and help to stimulate rich conversations with family and friends. The themes and stories can be covered in any order. Even just a few stories can be read at a sitting. Favorite stories can be read over and over again.

And hopefully, this book will inspire you to write your own journal highlighting meaningful stories from your past to gift to future generations.

About the Author

Richard O. Weijo, PhD, received an undergraduate degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and went on to receive his MBA and PhD degrees from the University of Minnesota. He was an Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Richard was also a Senior Analyst at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and his most recent corporate position was as a Manager of market research and Director of customer channels at Portland General Electric. Currently, he is a consultant and a writer. He adores his young granddaughter Elsie, whose birth inspired his book, Remember Me: Creating and Leaving an Inspiring and Memorable Legacy.