The woman I am
is not what you see
I’m not just bones
and crockery
—Dorthy Livesay—
As our bodies age, our spirits remain young. When we look at old people, too often we see only the”bones and crockery,
” the disturbing image of brittle frailty that lies ahead for us all. Seldom do we take the time to evoke the ageless spirit of an old person.
Yet those of us who are privileged to have close relationships with old men and women see beyond the mask of age. What we often find
there is a distillation of experience, sometimes wisdom,always keen memory, and almost always a fresh and ruthless impatience with hypocrisy and lies.
Old people are wonderfully shameless; they have no time for false pride or prudery. In the process of living so many years, whatever pretensions they
might have had seem to have dried up and blown away, like corn husks or last summer’s leaves. This quality is as bracing as sea air.
The very old share it with the very young, who are new in the world to be polite. The lesson that old people can teach us aren’t written anywhere.
Today I will become both old and young by seeing beneath the surface.