An inspirational gathering of thoughts on living a good old age into death, selected by the coauthor of the bestselling LIVING THE GOOD LIFE. With her husband, Scott--who lived to be 100--Helen Nearing (1904-1995) was a leading voice in the self-sufficiency movement and nonconformist thinking. Here she reflects, through the wise words of others, on the meaning of a long life and the wonder of what lies beyond.
An inspirational gathering of thoughts on living a good old age into death. A good old age can be the crown of all our life's experiences, the masterwork of a lifetime. There is much speculation about life after death. What about life before death? This superb collection addresses this undeniable theme with a combination of revelation & provocation. Helen & her husband Scott were leading voices in the self-sufficiency movement. They share musings gathered over time from a chorus of voices -- from Walt Whitman to Annie Dillard, Ovid to Carlos Castaneda, Emerson to Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Rabindranath Tagore to Anatole Broyard -- to present the greatest, most varied picture of the possibilities that advanced age & death offer us.
More than thirty years ago, an entire generation sought a new way of life, looking for fulfillment and meaning in a way no one had before. Leaving his teaching job at Harvard, Ram Dass embodied the role of spiritual seeker, showing others how to find peace within themselves in one of the greatest spiritual classics of the twentieth century, the two-million-copy bestseller Be Here Now. As many of that generation enter the autumn of their years, the big questions of peace and of purpose have returned demanding answers. And once again, Ram Dass blazes a new trail, inviting all to join him on the next stage of the journey.
This book presents the Buddhist approach to facing the inevitable facts of growing older, getting sick, and dying. These tough realities are not given much attention by many people until midlife, when they become harder to avoid. Using a Buddhist text known as the Five Subjects for Frequent Recollection, Larry Rosenberg shows how intimacy with the realities of aging can actually be used as a means to liberation. When we become intimate with these inevitable aspects of life, he writes, we also become intimate with ourselves, with others, with the world—indeed with all things.
Dispelling the Illusions of Aging and Dying: A Discourse from the Ascended Master ST. GERMAIN The two greatest fears that human beings possess are the fears of aging and dying - and that is exactly what holds you in the grip of the process of aging and dying. This book helps you to realize that every fear you have is illusory. When you move beyond the five senses, you can see these illusions for yourself. If you choose to follow the suggestions offered by the Ascended Master St. Germain and heal your fears, you will move into a greater awareness of the only true reality there is: that all is Light - and that includes you. Our world is changing very rapidly. We show you how to open yourself to a new world in which health and well-being are the natural order of existence. We invite you to join us on a journey to a new paradigm, a life-giving and rejuvenating paradigm that is free from all fear. This is possible now. CONTENTS Chapter 1: How Homo Sapiens Created Aging and Dying Chapter 2: A New Day Chapter 3: A New Way of Being Chapter 4: You Have Begun Chapter 5: Have You Had Enough? Chapter 6: What Is This New Way of Being? Chapter 7: How Will Life be for Me if There is No Death? Chapter 8: Abundance Comes in Many Forms Chapter 9: Break Free of the Illusions Chapter 10: Release All Expectations Chapter 11: Toward Healing, Growth, and Expansion Appendix The Ascended Masters Newsletters Books by the Authors How to Order Books
In Almost Over, F. M. Kamm presents a wide-ranging philosophical discussion of the moral, legal, and medical issues related to aging, dying, and death. She begins by considering different views about whether and why death is bad for the person who dies and what these views imply about the death of humanity. She then considers whether there are conditions under which it might make sense to deliberately bring a person's death about, given the processes of aging and dying that precede it. In the opinion of some it is not only serious illness but ordinary aging that may give rise to this question and Kamm pays particular attention to the various ways in which aging could affect the distribution of "goods" and "bads" in a particular life. Specifically, she considers how the limitations and changes due to aging and the dying process affect meaning in one's life, and whether the absence of meaning affects the reasonableness of not resisting or even seeking one's death. Kamm explores these questions not only as they relate to individuals' decisions but also as they relate to public policy and state action. Recently attempts have been made to help the general public think about end-of-life issues by devising questionnaires and conversation guides; Kamm evaluates some of these resources and articulates the moral implications of the assumptions they make about aging, dying, and value. She also takes up the issue of physician-assisted suicide as a way of ending one's life, considering its moral permissibility and whether or not it ought to be legalized as a matter of public policy. In doing so, she examines arguments from discussions about capital punishment concerning state action and also methods of balancing costs and benefits (including cost effectiveness analysis). In her analysis, Kamm engages with the views of such prominent philosophers, medical doctors, and legal theorists as Shelly Kagan, Susan Wolf, Atul Gawande, Ezekiel Emanual, and Neil Gorsuch, among others, shedding new light on conversations about the moral complexities and consequences of aging, dying, and death.
With the help of medicine and technology we are living longer than ever before. As human life spans have increased, the moral and political issues surrounding longevity have become more complex. Should we desire to live as long as possible? What are the social ramifications of longer lives? How does a longer life span change the way we think about the value of our lives and about death and dying? Christine Overall offers a clear and intelligent discussion of the philosophical and cultural issues surrounding this difficult and often emotionally charged issue. Her book is unique in its comprehensive presentation and evaluation of the arguments—both ancient and contemporary—for and against prolonging life. It also proposes a progressive social policy for responding to dramatic increases in life expectancy. Writing from a feminist perspective, Overall highlights the ways that our biases about race, class, and gender have affected our views of elderly people and longevity, and her policy recommendations represent an effort to overcome these biases. She also covers the arguments surrounding the question of the "duty to die" and includes a provocative discussion of immortality. After judiciously weighing the benefits and the risks of prolonging human life, Overall persuasively concludes that the length of life does matter and that its duration can make a difference to the quality and value of our lives. Her book will be an essential guide as we consider our social responsibilities, the meaning of human life, and the prospects of living longer.
Although philosophy, religion, and civic cultures used to help people prepare for aging and dying well, this is no longer the case. Today, aging is frequently seen as a problem to be solved and death as a harsh reality to be masked. In part, our cultural confusion is rooted in an inadequate conception of the human person, which is based on a notion of absolute individual autonomy that cannot but fail in the face of the dependency that comes with aging and decline at the end of life. To help correct the ethical impoverishment at the root of our contemporary social confusion, The Evening of Life provides an interdisciplinary examination of the challenges of aging and dying well. It calls for a re-envisioning of cultural concepts, practices, and virtues that embraces decline, dependency, and finitude rather than stigmatizes them. Bringing together the work of sociologists, anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, and medical practitioners, this collection of essays develops an interrelated set of conceptual tools to discuss the current challenges posed to aging and dying well, such as flourishing, temporality, narrative, and friendship. Above all, it proposes a positive understanding of thriving in old age that is rooted in our shared vulnerability as human beings. It also suggests how some of these tools and concepts can be deployed to create a medical system that better responds to our contemporary needs. The Evening of Life will interest bioethicists, medical practitioners, clinicians, and others involved in the care of the aging and dying. Contributors: Joseph E. Davis, Sharon R. Kaufman, Paul Scherz, Wilfred M. McClay, Kevin Aho, Charles Guignon, Bryan S. Turner, Janelle S. Taylor, Sarah L. Szanton, Janiece Taylor, and Justin Mutter
Lessons in Aging and Dying: A Poetic Autoethnography captures the experience of being elderly and facing the end of life. The book presents a collection of poems about life’s end accompanied with narrative commentary. Organized as 73 lessons, they can be read as personal curiosities, momentary realizations, farcical departures, embarrassing fears, therapeutic encounters, experiential truths, hopeful conjectures, and inevitable destinations. This book is a poetic inquiry that calls upon the lyrical in narrative and poetic forms to enter its subject. It also is an autoethnography that examines culture through the deployment of the self. Framed by introductory and concluding remarks, the book is organized around three developmental stages. The initial pages, "Beginnings," recognize the author’s birth into the end, a time when he knew he had arrived at a place beyond middle age. The middle unit, "From Here to There," displays an unsettled settling in, driven by an ongoing tension between resistance and acquiescence. It serves as a transitional stage into "Endings," the final section that anticipates death’s imminent arrival and speculates about how author might meet his end. Together, these units provide opportunities for identification, speculation, and resistance. Published as part of the prestigious autoethnographic series Writing Lives: Ethnographic and Autoethnographic Narratives, and written by one of the foremost academics in the fields of communication and performance studies, this text is particularly suitable for students and researchers in subjects such as relational and family communication, gerontology and end-of-life care, and performance studies.
Your Turn is the first book for adults who were abused and maltreated by older family members who are now faced with the aging and death of those abusive elders. This book discusses the reasons that this normal life passage has become especially difficult for adult survivors, drawing on psychological research about the long-term effects of childhood maltreatment. It then addresses how adult survivors can move through this time of time and make it into an opportunity for their own healing. Specific suggestions for self-care and strategies for decision-making are presented. An extensive list of written and on-line resources on a variety of related topics is included in the book. Your Turn is the only book that speaks to the special concerns of adult survivors of childhood maltreatment who are at this juncture in their lives.
