Last time, I offered the second part of the workshop based on the work of Helen Luke in her study of the journey into old age which draws on a number of classic stories. Luke’s writing on this subject is found in her book – Old Age; Journey Into Simplicity. Here is the third part of that material.
II The story: Odysseus now recalls the words of Teiresias spoken so long ago. With those words he recalled the folly and fate that youth had brought. He recalled the prideful blindness his seeing eyes could not reveal. In those words, consciousness came and with it the knowledge of the consequences they now bring.
One of the marks of Growing Old is to begin the journey in humility. To be truly humble is to see clearly as has been noted elsewhere. We see our lives for what they are, the folly that we have embraced, the mistakes we have made, out of blindness and willfulness, the hurt we have caused others, and the hurt we perceive others have caused us.
Exercise: How has humility, i.e. seeing your life clearly enabled you to appreciate this as a temptation? What does it mean for you to be humble? Describe how you see yourself with clarity that you didn’t see at the age of 20, 30, 40, or 50. Identify a temptation that you experience at this point in your life that would feed your ego rather than enabling you to grow old.
I will continue with the next part of the material next time. Blessings on your journey.
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