When a significant other - a spouse, a parent or someone you're close to - is dying, it forces you to think about your life, about what you feel about death. What I realized from my dad's dying was that I wasn't scared of dying. But I was terrified of regrets. I was terrified of getting to the end of my life with a lot of Why didn't I's.

I was raised in the '50s. I was taught by my father that how I looked was all that mattered.

Shortly after I turned 50, both Ted Turner and the AARP came into my life. The only difference? With AARP, there were benefits.

We're not meant to be perfect. It took me a long time to learn that.

When women have reclaimed their voices and men reclaimed their hearts, we won't be invading countries, we won't be feeling that we have the right to launch preemptive wars.

I spent a good deal of time going back over my childhood, my midlife, to try to understand who I was. We're supposed to be complete and whole, and you can't be whole if you're trying to be perfect. Doing a life review helped me get over the disease to please.

We don't need to be perfect. We're not supposed to be perfect; we're supposed to be complete. And you can't be complete if you're trying to be perfect.