Being Old is a Privilege

MarkD said:
Yes it does. However this part of what I quoted doesn't seem to ring true: "The idea of death robs inquiry of its passionate vitality and empties our efforts of their purpose". I've always thought that keeping cognizant of mortality adds impetus to emphasize the important over the trivial, although too firm a hand on the tiller can have other adverse effects. One needs to leave room for the light to get in too.
Click to expand...
I think that Hillman is talking generally here, and I noticed it especially when I was working on a ward that was virtually a hospice for the dying. People asked me how I could enjoy working there, and keep my humour. I answered that those who do not do the work often oversee the humour that some people retain in those final hours. The peace that finally quietens a frightened spirit, the satisfaction of having held the hand of a person in the moment they lose consciousness and die, and being there, even if our accompanying them ends at that door, are experiences that many people never have.
 


Back
Top