Since seniors are very literally threatened by this virus it is good to reflect on the meaning and lessons of being old and growing more so.
It should be clear to us that we have made a god of youth in America despite it being only a near unconscious beginning of a long path.
Carl Jung, at 85 yrs.,reflecting on the aging process:
It is a sad sign of human ignorance where a senior races to not look old. If we are given to reach old age it surely , besides finally giving us a way to experience genuine humility, must be a wondrous opportunity for a reach at wisdom which is simply not present till well after midlife. I wish I could say that most seniors reach for these things but many stopped the climb at middle life, giving up on the possibility that the truly best was yet to come.
Here an elderly Jung reflects on late life's unparalleled opportunities. These are not easy for any senior to Express to youth. It would not be heard anyway.
It should be clear to us that we have made a god of youth in America despite it being only a near unconscious beginning of a long path.
Carl Jung, at 85 yrs.,reflecting on the aging process:
“Old age is only half as funny as one is inclined to think.
It is at all events the gradual breaking down of the bodily machine, with which foolishness identifies as ourselves.
It is indeed a major effort– the magnum opus in fact– to escape in time from the narrowness of its embrace and to liberate our mind to the vision of the immensity of the world, of which we form an infinitesimal part.
In spite of the enormity of our scientific cognition we are yet hardly at the bottom of the ladder, but we are at least so far that we are able to recognize the smallness of our knowledge.
The older I grow the more impressed I am by the frailty and uncertainty of our understanding, and all the more I take recourse to the simplicity of immediate experience so as not to lose contact with the essentials, namely the dominants which rule human existence throughout the millenniums.“ (C.G.Jung Letters 2. 1951-1961. p.580)
It is a sad sign of human ignorance where a senior races to not look old. If we are given to reach old age it surely , besides finally giving us a way to experience genuine humility, must be a wondrous opportunity for a reach at wisdom which is simply not present till well after midlife. I wish I could say that most seniors reach for these things but many stopped the climb at middle life, giving up on the possibility that the truly best was yet to come.
Here an elderly Jung reflects on late life's unparalleled opportunities. These are not easy for any senior to Express to youth. It would not be heard anyway.
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