Cultivating Dignity

Dignity requires kindness and compassion for oneself and others, concern for the natural world and a determination to live in a sustainable and ethical way.  It is a basic value needed more than ever, yet seems to be less important and in serious danger of disappearing altogether.  Dignity needs to be planted and tended and cultivated. 

In the beginning of 2020, the year in which I will turn 75, the name of my blog, “The Golden Years Revisited,” no longer seems to express adequately the issues that most concern me today.  The name expressed my initial view on retirement and my determination to take on approaching old age with honesty and humor. 

While mostly satisfied with what I have written over the past four years, I am now wrestling with the fact that old age is no longer approaching, but seems to have arrived. My focus is more specific.  What does it mean to be “old?” What are my hopes, fears and joys in this final stage of life (however long or short it may turn out to be)? What beliefs and values sustain me?  How do I navigate this stage of my life with honesty and fearlessness, in a society where so much effort is put into denial of the fact that we are mortal and none of us will leave this earth alive?

Aging is not easy–physically, mentally or spiritually–but the journey will be less difficult when shared with others.  Changing the name of this blog is an invitation to join me in taking an honest look at becoming/being old and creating a resounding curtain call!

© Martha Hurwitz, 1/30/20