Comments on: I sort of want to go gently… http://forgetmemory.org/2007/10/04/i-sort-of-want-to-go-gently/ Thoughts from the author of the new book FORGET MEMORY: Creating better lives for people with dementia. To purchase the book, see the ABOUT tab above Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:44:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Greg Young http://forgetmemory.org/2007/10/04/i-sort-of-want-to-go-gently/#comment-24 Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:23:29 +0000 http://forgetmemory.org/2007/10/04/i-sort-of-want-to-go-gently/#comment-24 The women in “Still Kicking” were not all life-long artists. Painter Frances Catlett started painting in her 50s, rug weaver Grace Gildersleeve started making rugs in her 70s, and Madeline Mason made her first doll at 80 years old. Art and music are just one example for having a purpose to get up every morning, there are many others. In the film, 106 year old Lily Hearst believes she lived so long because she was very active when she was young–she rope climbed mountains in Austria. Art and music pursuits in later years may just be a byproduct of folks who tend to live life with passion and “can do” attitudes regardless of what they do.

The photo of painter Frances Catlett holding up two fingers was taken after her second consecutive strike while bowling.

]]> By: Chris McLaughlin http://forgetmemory.org/2007/10/04/i-sort-of-want-to-go-gently/#comment-3 Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:21:54 +0000 http://forgetmemory.org/2007/10/04/i-sort-of-want-to-go-gently/#comment-3 One of the lessons I’ve learned in growing older: you develop rich understanding of the stages you’ve been through, but you don’t have a clue about the stages ahead of you.

When Dylan Thomas wrote the villanelle “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he was mourning his father’s physical decline. He was frightened (as a drinking man, he’d probably prefer “angry”) to see his father’s transformation from something he understood, a wild man, into something he didn’t, a gentler person who’d put aside most of his thirsting desires.

The “cute” images of older old people always have the feel of something staged by younger marketing professionals who know one thing: youth good, age bad.

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