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| Rooted Saga (2023) |
"I've lost faith in the saying "You're only as old as you think you are"
- ever since I got old."
"It is a saying with a fine heritage. It goes right back to the idea of the Power of Positive Thinking, which is so strong in America because it fits in with the Power of Commercial Advertising and with the Power of Wishful Thinking, aka the American Dream. It is the bright side of Puritanism: what you deserve is what you get (never mind just now about the dark side). Good things come to good people and youth will last forever for the young at heart. Yup."
-----Ursula Leguin
Scrolling through Face book I am increasingly annoyed by various ads, memes, and "positive thinking" posts that assure me if I just purchase this product, follow that meditation or breathing exercise, or re-arrange my thinking process, I will defeat old age, look like Jane Fonda, or renew my sexual life after some ( quite happy and relieved that I'm not in the market for it) 20 years without one. Please.
If I've gained anything from Old Age besides arthritis (and at 76 I believe I qualify) it is an occasional modicum of wisdom, and an equally occasional modicum of being able to see through the surfaces of things. Sometimes I even glimpse the roots. I like that.
This morning I opened a book appropriately titled No Time to Spare, by Ursula K. Le Guin. As I opened this little collection of essays, published not long before her death in 2018, I encountered "The Sissie Strikes Back", a short reflection on old age in America. And once again my lifelong Shero has provided me with a Satori Jolt (witness the quote above). And a good response to all those annoying memes that used to make me feel so unevolved.
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