This is Getting Old
Susan Moon
This is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity
Shambhala Publications, Boston, MA 2010
"Wabi-sabi" is the Japanese aesthetic of finding beauty in the impermanence and imperfection of things weathered by time and use. Aged wood and lovely cracks in a clay bowl are wabi-sabi. Zen Buddhist writer Susan Moon, now in her seventh decade, says she, too, is turning wabi-sabi. This is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity is a collection of funny and sometimes poignant essays about the universal experience of aging. Moon's wisdom comes from her years of experience on the planet and many hours of sitting in meditation (though her sits now are in a chair and not on the floor; lotus position is too tough on the knees). Woven throughout the essays are Buddhist insights and Moon's own unique perspective on the aging process. Moore prefers to think of temporary mental lapses not as "senior moments" but as "wonderful moments, little coffee breaks of the brain." And, she reasons, "I bet Buddha sometimes forgot where he put his bowl down in his later years." Read a book preview here
