Images of Aging
Lorraine Keeney, Judith Slane, & Alice Cross, facilitators
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield
Alfred, Lord Tennyson. “Ulysses”
Discussions via zoom on Tuesday April, 9, 16, 23, 30, May 7 & 21 from 7-8 PM
Please view the films and listen to the podcasts, et cetera, before we meet.
April 9: The Straight Story (Amazon)
Avivah Wittenberg: 4-Quarter Lives: “Spotlighting the Third Quarter” with Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot (Copy and paste this citation.)
All of us, if we are lucky, live to reach the stage of life in which we now find ourselves dwelling. However, once we acquire the title “elderly,” or “senior citizen,” or just plain “older adult,” we may discover ourselves to be at a loss to understand what this phase of our lives can mean. It is hard to talk about aging, yet here we are. We are now done, or nearly so, with the chief duties of parenting and at the end, or nearly so, of our professional lives. Our bodies have changed; our memories may be shakier, our friendships may be fewer, but, as Tennyson has the aged Ulysses proclaim in his great poem, “Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.”
So, in our workshop, we will emulate the great Greek hero of myth and see what might yet lie along the shores of our own lives and those of the characters whose stories we will watch. The five films and various podcasts and writings will address: the value of taking risks when it is so easy to stay enveloped in routine; the ways in which our voices can still sing to others, moving them or helping them through their own dilemmas; the need for companionship and purpose and how they may evolve as we - or those we love - grow older and more frail. We will ask, as Mary Oliver does in her wonderful poem, “The Summer Day”:
Tell me what else I should have done.
Doesn’t everything die and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?