[whataretheysaying] Mary Madigan: Shining like brand new

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Posted by Mary Madigan:
Shining like brand new
http://whataretheysaying.powerblogs.com/posts/1195400094.shtml


   ..Like a ship without an anchor
   Like a slave without a chain
   Just the thought of those sweet ladies
   Sends a shiver through my veins

   And I will go on shining
   Shining like brand new
   Ill never look behind me
   My troubles will be few

   Goodbye stranger its been nice
   Hope you find your paradise..

   - Supertramp

   The Times wonders if old age and senility will [1]bring back free
   love:

     In one of the few cultural examples exploring old love â the film
     âAway From Her,â based on an Alice Munro short story and released
     in the spring â the starting point is similar to the OâConnorsâ
     story. A man who cannot imagine life without his sparkling wife of
     some decades watches her slip into Alzheimerâs and then a romance
     with another patient in a nursing home. In the fictional example,
     the spousal devotion is such that he arranges for her new boyfriend
     to return to the nursing home after seeing how crushed she is when
     the man moves away.

     But the story is more complex. The husband had a series of affairs
     years earlier, so what seems like devotion is also a desire to pay
     her back and to ease his own remorse.

     For Olympia Dukakis, whose mother had Alzheimerâs and who played
     the wife of the other man in the film, that wrinkle explains the
     resonance of Ms. Munroâs story.

     âShe was very aware that contradictory things live together,â Ms.
     Dukakis said. âYou canât look at it and say he did it purely for
     love. Itâs a complicated issue, because thereâs a lot of life that
     has been lived. Itâs not going to be simple.â

     Still, for all those kinds of complications, those who study aging
     can only smile at young lovers who say they never want to become
     like an old married couple. Despite the popular preference for
     young love, the OâConnorsâ example suggests that we should all
     aspire to old love, for better and for worse.

     "Young love is very privileged, and as a culture that may be a
     mistake," Dr. Pipher said. "If you want a communal culture where
     people make sacrifices for each other and work for the common good,
     you would have a culture that privileges the stories of older
     people."

   Free love, a communal culture, working for the common good. Add some
   cheap dope, and the average nursing home could be Woodstock without
   the rain...

References

   1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/weekinreview/18zernike.html?_r=1&ref=weekinreview&oref=slogin