There are two kinds of problems in life. One kind requires the question, What are we going to do about it? The other calls for different questions: What does it mean? How does one relate to it? T.S. Eliot If we view life as a pilgrimage, then we will realize that preparation for being old is a major task of our younger years. In our culture we emphasize the material side of this preparation with our never-ending emphasis on retirement... Read more
Continuing from Saturday’s post, the second unique and vital gift older people have to offer is their stories. Stories of the arc of a life well spent. Stories that edify. Stories that help us deal with life’s challenges. Stories that connect us with “the ancestors.” Again, for this gift to bear fruit, if it is to bring meaning to their lives and ours, reciprocity is required. If we truly wish to honor the aged, we must listen to them. And... Read more
Take pity on me, Yahweh, I am in trouble now. Grief wastes away my eye, my throat, my inmost parts. For my life is worn out with sorrow, my years with sighs; my strength yields under misery, my bones are wasting away. I am contemptible, Loathsome to my neighbors, to my friends a thing of fear. Those who see me in the street hurry past me; I am forgotten, as good as dead in their hearts, something discarded. ... Read more
“The vision which grows in aging can lead us beyond the limitations of our human self. It is a vision that makes us not only detach ourselves from preoccupation with the past but also from the importance of the present. It is a vision that invites us to a total, fearless surrender in which the distinction between life and death slowly loses its pain.” Henry Nouwen and Walter Gaffney, Aging: The Fulfillment of Life Spiritual Travels is about inward and... Read more
My thanks to Lori for letting me borrow her blogging platform for a week. Over the coming days I’d like to offer a possible blueprint for a book on aging I’m considering writing. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts about my thoughts. Do you find some of my ideas intriguing and deserving of more lengthy development? What do you think I should include that is not mentioned? Do you know of writing that already does what I am thinking about... Read more
My gracious, but it’s been awhile since I posted something on this blog. I have a good excuse, as I’ve been traveling in a place that has quite a few holy sites to explore: Israel. As you can imagine, I gathered some rich material for writing. While I recover from jet lag and plow through some other projects, my husband Bob is going to take over the posting duties for the next few days (more on that tomorrow). He’s working... Read more
Today’s post is another tidbit from New Zealand, this one contributed by Bob Sessions: On our trip to New Zealand, I walked alone one afternoon on a near-deserted beach near Kaikoura on the South Island. Eventually I came across a young man with a fishing pole who was casting into the surf. I asked him the obvious question: “Catching anything?” “Nope,” he said, retreating up the beach as a wave of water curled across the sand. “Been here long?” I... Read more
Today’s post is my monthly column for the Episcopal News Service, a piece that picks up a theme from my previous New Zealand musings. You might recognize the tattooed man, in particular. One of the things I love about traveling is how being in a different place can trigger epiphanies that startle and challenge me. On a recent trip to New Zealand, for example, I was surprised to meet John the Baptist, who appeared to me in the form of... Read more
OK, I promise that this is the last tidbit from Eric Weiner’s Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine. But this brief passage struck me as so true that I want to share it with you: Normally, we think of the religious as people who care more, not less than the rest of us. This is not true, not exactly. The truly religious care more deeply about fewer things and don’t give a hoot about the rest. As William James... Read more
I hope you’ll indulge me in a second post on Eric Weiner’s Man Seeks God: My Flirtations with the Divine. He has a lovely passage in which talks about one of my favorite holy places, the Lascaux cave in France. Weiner’s words made me see the caves in a new light–and they also make an important point about the religious quest: Inside the vast, multichambered recesses are hundreds of elaborate drawings dating back to the Paleolithic era, at least twenty-five... Read more
Holy Rover
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In