Positive Aging and Shadow

Over a period of years, I helped put together 9 national conferences on “Positive Aging.” It gives me some satisfaction that, despite our orientation toward what can illuminate later life, we also made sure that these events included attention to issues such as end-of-life care, dementia, and other elements that are, too often, seen only as part of the “Shadow of Age.” The following article makes a valuable contribution in paying attention to the Shadow:

“Aiding Her Dying Husband, a Geriatrician Learns the Emotional and Physical Toll of Caregiving” at: https://bit.ly/2TjcVSZ https://mailer.luxsci.com/link.php?M=20220674&N=15532&L=45545&F=H

The Shadow was well understood by Rumi:

“However much I fled, my shadow did not leave me; shadow must be in charge of me, even though I become as the thread of a hair.

Only the sun has the power to drive away shadows, the sun increases and diminishes them; seek this from the sun.

Though for two thousand years you are running in the back of the shadow, in the end you will see that you are behind and the shadow before.”

(*Mystical Poems of Rumi*, by A.J. Arberry)

Say “Yes” to positive aging, but not at the expense of Shadow: “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” (Carl Jung)