aging
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Thoughtlets. LXIV. Why should the young have all the angst?
One factor, for some, in the angst and drama of the teen years is discovering one’s identity and where one fits in. But adults struggle with these issues, too. Some learn to just ‘fit in’. Some happily. Others feeling suffocated, wearing a mask, harbouring regrets. The mid-life crisis is a common phenomenon, as is the Continue reading
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Thoughtlets. LXIII. Dadgum stereotypes.
An excerpt from some footnotes in my archives: Mind you, as one ages she is portrayed as having deteriorating rationality. What’s more, elderly people are often stereotyped as emotionally rigid, cranky, and prone to ‘irrational’ behaviours. Hence crones (witches) and curmudgeons. But then there are also the sweet-old-lady stereotypes, those ever-pleasant grandmothers bereft of emotional Continue reading
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Another old poem
This poem is an amalgam of a few people I was privileged to know during my formative years and just beyond. The hand in the photo — resting on oilcloth — belongs to a beloved friend (deceased), the last occupant of an old mill camp. The Stone What story in her face isn’t being told? Continue reading
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The Fine Art of Thumb Twiddling (poem)
I wrote the following poem at least a decade ago. I’d forgotten until this evening when I unearthed a CD from a dresser drawer and had a look. I help my mother ease into the passenger seat, guiding her by her elbow with one hand and balancing her canes with the other, I tuck her Continue reading
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New, old, permanence, and change. A montage of thoughts and quotes. (Repost, Feb. 23, 2020)
Note: May 18, 2021. I’m thinking about aging tonight, and the passage of time. Which reminded me of the following montage of thoughts and quotes that I assembled last year. “Not everything was better in our ancestors’ days, either — our own age, too, has produced many instances of excellence and artistic merit deserving to Continue reading
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Thoughtlets .xi.
If conditions on earth are optimal for human life — clean water, stable climate, no war, no famine, no plagues, no cancer and so on — of the 7.8 billion people alive today all but a handful of outliers will be dead in 100 years. And even those outliers won’t live more than a decade Continue reading
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‘Mom-advice’. You take a little cringe with the good.
Some parental advice is worth keeping, some not. Here’s a not. Mom used to tell me, You can’t get married until you can put your hands in hot water. By this warning she figured she could get me to wash the dishes without having to nag. And she was right. Time and again, I took Continue reading
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Cephalus On Ageing
Cephalus, in answer to Socrates’ question of whether life is harder towards the end, “For certainly old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are freed from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many.” (3) Plato, Trans. Benjamin Continue reading
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On aging.
Like this knocker, my hands have given so many years of service. They’ve been tireless and strong, standing up to water, heat, and cold. And, like this knocker, they’ve been taken by the hands of others. Continue reading
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