The commercial world hammers the meme of aging as a relaxed time when we are free to enjoy our friends, hobbies, and memories. In "Blue Nights," Joan Didion takes on that upbeat spin.
In this book which sorts through the death of her daughter Quintana Roo, Didion reflects on the pain of the many other kinds of losses which inevitably come with getting older. Some of those are so painful that, no, we don't enjoy the memories, not at all.
Is it possible to reset our way of seeing the world to focus on what is right now, not what was? Since May, I have been trying to do just that. My business surged. Also, my life has become more open to letting new people in.
Is it the past which circumvents the present for the aging? Could we accomplish so much more if we simply let go of what had been?
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