I find the culture around aging and death to be damaging and silly. Rather than get on with the important work of old age —reconciliation, preparing for death, and imparting wisdom, we are encouraged to extend our fantasies of eternal youth, or at least eternal middle age.
Never mind that in a flash, we could move from independent lives to being children to our children, or worse in the charge of institutions. Even if we look like Jane Fonda.
The culture gives lie to our experience and leads us down false paths.
And yes, old age is also a time for wisdom, for comfort in one’s own skin, and for compassionate distance on the shenanigans of life.
Life is not linear, but circular. And as we age, some of us are drawn again into the vibrancy of color and spontaneous laughter and joy of the young. The endless spiral of life.
