There’s much more to life than simply aging, he says. We can grow wiser, more compassionate, and become a powerful contributor to the life of our families and the larger community. The world needs Elders, who have been sidelined, ignored and dis-empowered from their traditional roles as the Third Stage of Life, the wisdom givers.
With the development of towns, cities, industrialization and technology, the world view and extensive life experiences of elders have diminished and the three stages of life, Youth, Adult and Elder, have devolved to two stages, Youth and Adult. The Adult stage, with its emphasis on accumulation, exploitation of the planet, and the insatiable quest for more, is bringing the planet to an unsustainable level. Austin sees Elders as a force to bring balance to the world, to dispel the myth that old is not as good as young, and to humanize and heal society..
He acknowledges the reality of the declining body. Yes, I’ve been experiencing it lately. I could use a hearing aid, some dental implants. possibly cataract surgery and Friday night, for the first time, I tried out an APAP machine that blows air into my nose to keep my breathing channels open when I sleep. And all this is just from the neck up.
Austin’s response is “So What?” Elderhood isn’t a soccer game that demands a strong body. “Elder is not an age of life, rather it is a stage of life. It is a way of being. And it is a way of being by choice. Each of us has a choice whether to focus on the declining body, or on the upsurge of spirit that an Elder can exhibit,” he writes. Our beliefs, our perceptions, determine which path we will take. Senile or wise Elder, that’s the choice and the stand we take. He offers a prescription for Elderhood in his book.
Recently in trying to figure out where my skyrocketing heartbeat, high blood pressure and insomnia were coming from, I decided I was experiencing good old anxiety -- something I decided to call the LAD Anxiety Syndrome. LAD stands for Loneliness, Aging and Death. The doctor said, Oh, that’s a "phase of life" issue. It's not original to me at all, but typical of this phase of life, especially death anxiety, which is an underlying, universal and basic fear to all humans. It's also a fear we tend to put on the back burner, individually and as a culture.
Austin advises the Elder to confront death, up front and personal, rather than get stuck in denial. Your view might shift, he says. "You may conclude death is not only confrontable, but even an exciting aspect of life." I don't know about that, but as Religious Scientists, we can turn to Ernest Holmes who says: “The experience of dying is but the laying off of an old garment and the donning of a new one.” We simply transition into the spiritual realm.
But not yet! Before that happens, there is much that Elders can bring to the world in terms of service, and much we can do to live a life of joy, loving relationships, creative expression, leadership, conflict mediation, social activism and more. As Helen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
So those of us at the back end of life, who still have "gas in the tank," as Rev. Mike has said, can start where we’re at, work on ourselves to become the best that we can be, and determine how to share our unique gifts, life experience and wisdom as we navigate this daring adventure of Elderhood.
And so it is.
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