How old would you be if you didn't know how old you were? ~Satchel Paige
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it. ~Mark Twain
The carbon burns hottest the moment before the ash. ~ amaria
Don’t let others define you. Be who you are.
My 62nd birthday is in a week. Sixty-two isn't exactly elderly, but it's no longer middle-aged, either. It's like being a 'tween, but at the other end of life. Here I write out some of my own thoughts about this phase of existence.
Ageism is right up there with sexism, racism, and homophobia. It's a quiet killer in that in Western societies, particularly America, it strips a person of dignity. We lose our mobility, our supple body and use of body parts, become forgetful, and our senses diminish and/or extinguish. Hair and other things grow where they never were and go away from where they once were. Spots, wrinkles, and sags replace clear, smooth, and tight.
In addition, the majority of us elders are either poor or living in borderline poverty. We are swept into the periphery, the corners, the dustbin of life. Yet decades of technology-driven prosperity have removed the remnants of the respect that more traditional cultures paid to those who earned wisdom over a long lifetime.
Aging and death are taboo subjects in capitalist Western societies. Not only must an older person come to terms with illness (age-related and otherwise), loss, increasing dependence in a time of loneliness, depression, poverty, long-unresolved issues, and his or her own death, but s/he must also cope with the stigma of being an untouchable in a fast-paced, youth-oriented, impersonal, consumer-and-ego-driven world. In the past two months I've learned I have high blood pressure and cataracts. I know, I know. You can have either of these at any age. But in general, getting old isn't for cowards.
Most of my life I've had terrific results with homeopathy, acupuncture, and herbs. I've made my own tinctures and ointments and oils for over thirty years, and with few exceptions (like colds and ear infections and skin rashes) I've had splendid results. I'm hopeful that I might find a means to control my blood pressure with diet and exercise and my cataracts with herbs, acupuncture, and/or homeopathy.
For example, an herb that has been used successfully to treat cataracts in India is senecio cineraria, or dusty miller
I've begun to practice mindfulness meditation because of the issues I listed in the previous paragraph. One of the first things I've noticed is that I carry ageism within myself so that not only do I dislike my own state of aging, but I also dislike being around those who are my age and older. It's one of my shameful hypocrisies.
As I look back on the first two decades of my life, I realize how much life I could pack in a few months, which at the time felt like years. Now the decades whiz past and my entire life feels like a handful of unreliable images. [see We Live Too Short and Die Too Long ]
Sometimes I wake with dread in the pit of my stomach. I spend a lot of time with self talk about whether death is the absolute end or whether it's a transition to another existence. I've read and heard arguments from both sides, but my conclusion is always the same: No one has returned to report what goes on or what doesn't go on. There is talk about near death experiences, but "near death" isn't death, is it?
What I can't come to terms with is, if something like karma and reincarnation happen, why are we cursed to forget between lifetimes so that we continually repeat the same mistakes? I'm an agnostic on this. Perhaps, I speculate, after many millennia, we finally learn. And why is so much violence done against innocent beings?
I teach one thing and one thing only, suffering, and the end of suffering ~ Buddah
Accepting what is may be this most difficult aspect of old age -- the subject of another post.
When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it. ~Mark Twain
The carbon burns hottest the moment before the ash. ~ amaria
Don’t let others define you. Be who you are.
My 62nd birthday is in a week. Sixty-two isn't exactly elderly, but it's no longer middle-aged, either. It's like being a 'tween, but at the other end of life. Here I write out some of my own thoughts about this phase of existence.
Ageism is right up there with sexism, racism, and homophobia. It's a quiet killer in that in Western societies, particularly America, it strips a person of dignity. We lose our mobility, our supple body and use of body parts, become forgetful, and our senses diminish and/or extinguish. Hair and other things grow where they never were and go away from where they once were. Spots, wrinkles, and sags replace clear, smooth, and tight.
In addition, the majority of us elders are either poor or living in borderline poverty. We are swept into the periphery, the corners, the dustbin of life. Yet decades of technology-driven prosperity have removed the remnants of the respect that more traditional cultures paid to those who earned wisdom over a long lifetime.
Aging and death are taboo subjects in capitalist Western societies. Not only must an older person come to terms with illness (age-related and otherwise), loss, increasing dependence in a time of loneliness, depression, poverty, long-unresolved issues, and his or her own death, but s/he must also cope with the stigma of being an untouchable in a fast-paced, youth-oriented, impersonal, consumer-and-ego-driven world. In the past two months I've learned I have high blood pressure and cataracts. I know, I know. You can have either of these at any age. But in general, getting old isn't for cowards.
Most of my life I've had terrific results with homeopathy, acupuncture, and herbs. I've made my own tinctures and ointments and oils for over thirty years, and with few exceptions (like colds and ear infections and skin rashes) I've had splendid results. I'm hopeful that I might find a means to control my blood pressure with diet and exercise and my cataracts with herbs, acupuncture, and/or homeopathy.
For example, an herb that has been used successfully to treat cataracts in India is senecio cineraria, or dusty miller
Senecio cineraria is an important medicinal plant of known therapeutic value for the treatment of cataract and corneal opacity. Cineraria is the traditional homeopathic remedy found in the Ophthalmology section of the Physicians Desk reference as a treatment for cataracts. The government of India has stated that "Cineraria is the drug of choice to halt or reverse cataract." [source]But the conventional medical community usually insists that the only treatment is surgery to remove the clouded lenses and replace them with new lenses. The problem with that is that the new lenses can also become clouded if you live long enough.
I've begun to practice mindfulness meditation because of the issues I listed in the previous paragraph. One of the first things I've noticed is that I carry ageism within myself so that not only do I dislike my own state of aging, but I also dislike being around those who are my age and older. It's one of my shameful hypocrisies.
As I look back on the first two decades of my life, I realize how much life I could pack in a few months, which at the time felt like years. Now the decades whiz past and my entire life feels like a handful of unreliable images. [see We Live Too Short and Die Too Long ]
Sometimes I wake with dread in the pit of my stomach. I spend a lot of time with self talk about whether death is the absolute end or whether it's a transition to another existence. I've read and heard arguments from both sides, but my conclusion is always the same: No one has returned to report what goes on or what doesn't go on. There is talk about near death experiences, but "near death" isn't death, is it?
What I can't come to terms with is, if something like karma and reincarnation happen, why are we cursed to forget between lifetimes so that we continually repeat the same mistakes? I'm an agnostic on this. Perhaps, I speculate, after many millennia, we finally learn. And why is so much violence done against innocent beings?
I teach one thing and one thing only, suffering, and the end of suffering ~ Buddah
Accepting what is may be this most difficult aspect of old age -- the subject of another post.
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