Back in the 1990s I was facing death and writing of a possible future. I wrote the story from which the below excerpt was taken shortly after I was hospitalized for Pneumocystis pneumonia and my T-cell count was down to 22. At the time, my writing teacher thought it was"...

I faced death. Today, I am facing taxes again. Death was easy...

As I often do, I remind myself that today I have "luxury problems" -- those of us who have faced death and survived may be somewhat better equipped to keep life's inconveniences in perspective. A year from...

WARNING: This post contains sexually explicit language. Please read on at your own discretion.

Betty Dodson has done more for masturbation than anyone I know. Her workshops and books, particularly Sex for One, have helped countless women connect with themselves as ground zero for pleasure. Betty has inspired me in...

I try to hide it, but most of the time, I'm my father's son and his glass was neither half-empty nor half-full -- it was overflowing. His generation overcame poverty, prejudice and struggle. They experienced a Depression and a World War. Of my father's six siblings, one was institutionalized for...

I get a call: My Aunt Lil is in the emergency room at New York Hospital. She has had an accident. What do I do?

This happened a couple of years ago. I dropped everything and went right there. It meant canceling appointments and getting coverage for a group I...

One might say I have been blessed with an overactive mind, one might say I have been cursed with an overactive mind, and one might say I simply have a mind -- and it's the only one I have this time around.

Gifts and challenges come in the same...

"Ethical slut" sounds oxymoronic to many, but not to me. I believe in integrity, and I love sex.

But in writing my column The New 60 for The Advocate and The Good Men Project, I've found that talking openly about my active sex life bothers many readers. Sex, like money,...

As I grapple with writing my life's story, I have to ask myself, "Why am I doing this?"

In the Internet age there is almost no time lag between publication and response. With my column and book The New 60, I put select parts of my journey out...

I am in Cappadoccia, Turkey, one of the birthplaces of civilization, and I am going through withdrawal.

1. I have not read an email or spoken on the phone for 54 hours. In other words, I am off the grid: no Facebook, no Twitter, no texting, no phone usage....

"At last
My love has come along,
My lonely days are over,
And life is like a song."
--Etta James

Much to my surprise, I can no longer say that I don't want to get married.

I heard Etta James' tribute to long-yearned-for love as the...

Bob Bergeron committed suicide at 49 -- just before the planned publication of his book, The Right Side of Forty. His suicide note, written on the title page, included this phrase about the book: "It's a lie based on bad information." Perhaps understandably, the publisher cancelled the book's release. So...

Sex, death, survival...

Aging in the 21st century is an exciting new frontier. We are redefining its meaning as we live it. Younger men (and women) need to know that we do not have a "shelf life," that passing 40 and 50 and 60 is not the end of our...

Some of life's lessons cannot be learned ahead of time. Yet, over and over again, clients, friends, strangers lament that "I don't understand... I'm overwhelmed and confused... I'm not equipped to handle [this challenge]..."

We forget who we are in these moments. Most of us have already handled bigger challenges...

"If people knew my real age, I'd never work again." I have heard this plaint more than once. The last time was the day before yesterday, when talking about age with a vivacious, successful Brazilian friend. She doesn't dare tell the truth about her age.

Why do most people lie...

"Who is that old person in the mirror? I'm 17!" My mother said it years ago. Now, it's my turn...

Our age is how long we have been on the planet. However, our sense of self is -- at least in part -- ageless. In this ageist culture, we are...

Alex is in his late 40s. His partner of 16 years died suddenly one night four months ago and Alex is struggling to have a present that includes a future. He and his partner were an insular couple -- they focused on each other and were each other's best friends....

On more than one occasion, I have heard the teacher and author Ram Dass, born Richard Alpert, describe certain elements of his journey. To paraphrase: "I was analyzed; I had a Ph.D. in psychology; I became the youngest tenured psychology professor in Harvard's history; I was thrown out of Harvard...

So, is your glass "half-full" or "half-empty"?

When my brothers and I eulogized our 94-year-old father at his funeral, there was so much laughter that we received comments such as, "That was the best funeral ever!" and, "Do you write a thank-you note for a funeral?" In my brother...

My parents met on a blind date arranged through the mail. It was 1945. Two New York City kids stationed in Fort Benning, Ga. -- my father a paratrooper, my mother a dietician in the Nursing Corp. Wartime can provoke extreme actions: they eloped eight days later. And the marriage...

I am 60. I have lived half my life with HIV/AIDS. This is my normal. When I tested positive as part of a study in 1983, no one would have expected me to be here, let alone be thriving. Not many of the first wave are here.

When AIDS...