Aging - To me 6-12-13
aging is finding that
as day turns to evening
my mother peeks out
from behind my eyes.
It is seeing the fine bones
of my mother's face
edge ever closer
to the wrapping of her skin
it is watching my father
become less large
and somehow transforming
from hero to human
It is leaving sibling rivalry
by the pathway
and walking unencumbered
into the future
It is change
simple and organic
unstoppable movement to the future
well rooted in the past
In 250-500 words, please talk about your submission.
Why did you choose this item?
What does it mean to you? Your family? Your community? Your society?
How does it relate to the question of the week?
Why did you choose this item?
What does it mean to you? Your family? Your community? Your society?
How does it relate to the question of the week?
Aging is simple and progressive. It is about growing into your family history, about learning how your family met challenges. It is about the richness of your culture, your history, and your family. Aging is learning and changing. It is moving along a time span - taking knowledge from the past, applying it in the present, and building on it for the future.
In the overarching culture (American), the elderly are marginalized. In Appalachian culture, the matriarchs and patriarchs are often the keepers of the history. It is an oral tradition and as the elders die, often the history of the family becomes lost. The families are smaller with the newer generations - and so family ties are being lost. Where my parents both had many siblings, I have one of each. My son is a single child. The kinship networks are changing as there is more space between generations, fewer people within the networks, and people have moved further away from homestead. So, the way of life I learned as a child is changing as the American culture continues to idealize youth and attempt to ignore the elderly.
From a biological perspective, it is shortening of telomeres. From a psychological perspective, it is a stage-process of tasks to accomplish. For any specific perspective, there is a corresponding definition. Regardless of perspective, aging is change. It is specific to the individual and as fluid and varied as any other aspect of human existence.
Assignment 1 from Coursera Class:
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