Since starting to care for aging parents, I’ve become very impressed with Shakespeare’s “the world’s a stage” speech.
Tag Archives: Aging
Returning Home to Aging Parents
Marilynne’s Robinson’s novel “Home” captures some of my own experience returning home.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Great American Dream, Home: A Novel, homecoming, Marilynne Robinson, parents, Philip Roth Comments closed
Poetry, a Lifeline for the Desperate
In Lee Chang Dong’s “Poetry,” an old woman poetry as a way to address the overwhelming challenges of her life.
Ulysses: Do Not Go Gently into Retirement
A discussion of Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses” led a group of senior citizens to conclude that it’s about a man who is experiencing difficulties transitioning into retirement.
Growing More Liberal as We Age
Frost may allude to the belief that we become more conservative as we age, but his own poetry refutes the claim.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "I Never Dared Be Radical When Young", Birches, racism, Robert Frost, tolerance Comments closed
At 60, a Comfortable Old Scarecrow
Having just turned 60, I’ve been thinking of Teiresias. Wise though the blind seer may be, his advice doesn’t help others that much. Aging, in other words, appears to require humility.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bacchae, Carl Jung, Euripides, Homer, Odyssey, Oedipus, Sophocles, T. S. Eliot, Wasteland Comments closed
With Aging, Abundant Recompense
In a follow-up to yesterday’s post where I talked about my cancer-ridden friend Alan, I examine another passage from The Brothers Karamazov. This one is focused on aging generally, not just death. If you ever find yourself getting depressed about getting old, check it out. And check out as well William Wordsworth’s Intimations […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Intimations of Immortality, Nature, Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth Comments closed
“Up” Battles Aging Like . . . Beowulf?
Film Friday I was rewatching the Pixar film Up last week (it kicks off a series I am running on “animated films for adults”) and saw one scene that was simply too fantastical for belief. Geriatric hero Carl Fredricksen is battling with the even older Charles Muntz and both throw their backs out in the […]
The Cataract Haunted Me Like a Passion
Ansel Adams, Yosemite Falls Julia, Toby (our youngest son) and I visited Yosemite National Park for the first time last week, and I am still vibrating from the stunning rock faces and gorgeous waterfalls. It was remarkable to see what seemed, at a distance, to be thin, almost delicate, streams of water pouring from great […]
