“Coming of Aging” is live! So are we.
Welcome.
Coming of aging, like coming of age, explores those times in our lives when enter a new phase - puberty, meno-(and mano) pause, mid-life crisis, retirement - and so many unrecognized passages as well. First gray hairs. First wrinkles. First painful joint. First time you are passed over because of age. And the harsh internalized ageism, the pummeling we give ourselves because we hit some of those markers.
My interest is our experience of aging, how we feel, what we think, what we learn, how we heal, what new pleasures emerge as we go through the aging process with awareness and curiosity. My interest in self-knowledge, spiritual growth, healing the hurts that build up in the background of busy lives, and releasing all the many shames. It is also to face death that comes closer every day.
It’s all grist for our own coming of aging mill.
I’ve spent decades telling millions of people what I think. I’ve been a how-to and why-to expert. I now want to share how it’s felt to live this life, what I’ve learned, what is underneath my, or anyone’s, curated shiny selves. You may know me from Your Money or Your Life or the Conversation Cafes or my podcast, What Could Possibly Go Right? I’ve linked those so you can explore them, but here, it’s story-telling, humor, humility and grace.
My fifties and sixties have been the most creative time in my life, but one day I noticed I was almost 78 and had given little thought to the final years and death. Before, I was immortal in my own mind. After, I sobered up and became fascinated with what this time in life brings.
Western civilization is also “coming of aging” after a 500-year run since the Renaissance and a 250 run of the American Empire. As I realized I’d entered the final phase of my own life, and started to work through the very sober tasks of reconciling with my past, other people, my limitations, and death, I could see how our country is also at the end of a long story with many skeletons in many closets. Will we do the work of reconciliation, amends, reparations, maturing?
I want to be a community of inquiry with you, serving up personal essays, poems and sometimes rants to seed conversations among us. I can’t do this part of my life alone. I don’t think anyone can, hard as we try to be separate individuals.
