Conscious Aging II: Grieving The Passing Of A Generation

In this short presentation, we reflect upon the sense of grief we may feel at the passing of a generation, either our own or the one just before ours. By naming and assessing the experience, we can better position ourselves relative to the passing of time and so experience a spaciousness in which to accept and appreciate the great gift of loving and living with others. Music by Harumachi Music; Image by Taoyuetong; both from Pixabay

Transcript

Each year, When I watch the Academy Awards, I am most moved by the In Memoriam segment, Which honours those important in the film industry who have died the previous year. So many names I've come to know in my life without really trying. But markers, Like stars in a black sky seen from the sea, They've just been there, Fixed points as I lived my life. The same can be said for musicians, Songwriters and bands that have been with me all my life, Creating the texture of the soundtrack that has accompanied me from middle school on and which evokes the colour of emotions that I felt in my core and recall, Years later, Viscerally. If these are fixed moments, Stars in the sky, Then the earth is turning beneath them. The sky, A great sphere, We rotate beneath and soon, Too soon perhaps, Some of the stars fall beneath the horizon. So many names, So many faces, So many lives lived out there in their own worlds, Dipping now toward the horizon. A kind of bittersweet melancholy arises from watching the parade of names and faces that pass across the screen. Oh, So-and-so died, I might whisper to my partner, I didn't know. As we age, The space between those who have passed and our own point relative to the horizon narrows. They begin to look like us, The greying hair, The weathered faces, Eyes in the sockets of softened flesh. We are, All of us, Rotating toward the horizon, And as each year passes, We see a cluster of stars, A generation ahead of us, Or maybe our own, Dipping toward the darkness. What a strange feeling of peace this knowledge evokes. We are here on this quiet sea as the stars slip toward the earth's rim, And it is, Once we have pushed past the fear, Impossible not to be grateful, Even as we grieve the passing of a generation. For we have witnessed, We have experienced, We have loved the joys and company of others. What a great gift. The songs, The films, The books of our generation and those before. What a richness. And its loss only deepens the appreciation, The love. What a rich, Poignant feeling, Joy-felt, Heart-felt, To love and lose the generation before us. We might grieve the loss, But it is a loss tempered with joy, For this, For everything, We can be grateful.