getting old(er..)

Adjusted to fit UK contexts, here is a poem from David Rynick, a wise and compassionate man:

  65^th birthday manifesto, by David Rynick

NHS, Atorvastatin,
baby aspirin please.
Don’t forget: zipper up,
phone, wallet, keys.

Sixty-five, still alive;
running now on fumes.
Yet to come, worrisome;
the piper plays the tune.

Still I’ll dance with tattered pants,
shameless far and near.
Too old to care when others stare,
I’ll find new freedom here.

 More of David on: http://davidrynick.com/blog/

and in his wonderful book "This Truth Never Fails."

I wish him plenty of fumes. Maybe growing old has new freedoms in it, as well as deteriorations. Yeats wrote:

 

An aged man is but a paltry thing,

A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

For every tatter in its mortal dress

Interpret and relate to "soul" as you wish.  Let's sing and dance onwards.

irresponsible wisdom and right action

Sometimes I think I could simply link to David Rynick's blog and leave it to him....

This morning,
rather than diagnosing
and recommending,
in pragmatic prose,
a way through
the current crisis,
I sip tea and
practice being
irresponsible.

The dark masters
gather and grumble
at my indolence,
but I courageously resist
their muttered insults and
seductions.

I have grown old
and weary in
steadfast pursuit of
their fickle approval;
as if freedom could
happen at some other
time.

Every action balances
dungeon and delight:
the endless quest for
self-earned grace or
some rougher and
sweeter enterprise
depending only
on the air that
has already been
given.

This morning again
I practice resistance to
the ancient gods of Self
accomplishment and vow
to disappear into this
one life without
justification.

"To disappear into this one life without justification" - maybe that's where we need to go to find the best thing to do in any given circumstance, rather than striving to act by using the ego's promptings and desires. That's the paradox - "there is a field beyond ideas of right and wrong; I'll meet you there," says Rumi.

Maybe we need to let right action* emerge from within, to let it grow in that field beyond right and wrong. There, it can grow free from the needy ego, which seeks to reinforce its sagging foundations by endlessly justifying itself....

davidrynick.com for more help from a wise one.