My Five Careers

IN MY FIVE CAREERS, ninety-four year old Joseph Taylor offers the keen observations of a trained professional, using plain everyday language, concerning how the centralities of work, marriage, friendships, music and skillful management of chance events, have contributed to retaining his intellectual acuity and to promoting longevity. He notes that his life-long pursuits coincide with contemporary research findings on maintaining brain power and achieving a long life. Taylor suggests many brain-boosting post-retirement activities, and offers insightful comments on the practice of psychiatry, the common denominator in the many different talk therapies, hypnosis, the experience of marching with Danny Kaye in an Ivy League University procession, why he believes that child abuse will not be eradicated in the foreseeable future, and why sports is perhaps the most honorable enterprise in American life. Thirty New Yorker-style cartoons, produced in collaboration with artist Pic Michel, take a wry, witty look at Taylor's significant and not-so-significant life. A selection of his previously published personal essays, short stories, a one-act play, poetry, and easy-to-read articles published in professional journals follow the narrative.