Old Age: Journey Into Simplicity - Paperback Book on Embracing Life's Golden Years | Perfect for Seniors, Caregivers & Retirement Gifts

As someone in my mid sixties, I really appreciate the insights in this book. There are many books that deny the reality of old age or make jokes about it or describe ways to manage it, but this is the only book I've come across that really talks about what the transition into old age can represent in a person's development. I've had a few older friends who've given me some sense of what the challenges of aging are about, but this is the most eloquent evocation of what can be learned from the aging process that I've ever come across. I confess I have a fairly Jungian way of looking at life so this book fits well into my world view, but in the past, I've felt that even Jungians tend to describe the psyche's journey through life by discussing youth and the journey through midlife and the tasks of the last half of one's life, but I haven't seen anyone else really talk about actually being old and dying. It's more as if you acquire consciousness and then drop off a cliff. It's not that there's hasn't been the implication that somehow you acquire consciousness and wisdom, but how this is actually done through the real suffering of losing the components of what you believed to be essential parts of your life and your personality is rarely addressed. Old age, as I'm discovering, is all about loss. Loss of abilities you once had, loss of health, loss of loved ones, loss of what were once central beliefs. It is only in the willing relinquishment of everything to which you think you need to hold on, that one's soul can develop. I don't say this glibly. I'm not at all sure yet how well, I personally will make this transition. What I really appreciate is the map that Helen Luke has provided of this very difficult terrain. Using analogies from classical literature, she has illuminated the path. I'd like to thank her for doing so. Her writing is wise, brave, and really valuable.