Wrinkles on the Brain:
Towards Wisdom
When I reach my later years I would like to be like my Italian teacher, Father Benjamin Listello. Besides his calm demeanour and his graceful acceptance of his inabilities, what we admired in him was his sharp memory at the age of 87. But one day when I visited him in his room, I discovered his mnemonic device – just a simple things-to-do list that he updated it several times a day! An additional secret was that he always dropped his things-to-do list on the floor near the door, so that he was forced to pick it up and have a look at it.
In popular understanding, one of the signs of ageing is forgetting (and in some cases extreme dementia. Dementia is not just a problem of memory, but a cognitive condition that is marked by difficulties in skills associated with understanding, language and problem solving. […]
Later years
Psycho-spiritual reflections on later years of life – 3
Arrivals & Departures:
Handling socio-emotional situations towards altruism
In traditional societies, due perhaps to restricted physical movement, older people generally reduce their circle of acquaintances. They live in familiar set ups, with familiar people. They hardly meet new people. This makes their life less interesting perhaps, but in terms of socio-emotional aspects their situation is understandably less complex.
The beginning of later years is often marked by an experience of arrivals and departures in relationships. If the later years begin at the time of retirement, this stage is marked by an experience of saying good-bye to friends and colleagues at the place of work. At this stage many retired people may become members of church based groups or other interest groups, where they are exposed to new acquaintances. In the developed world, due to easy access to transport, (and thanks to the freedom pass for the senior citizens!), elderly people might travel more, […]
Psycho-spiritual reflections on later years of life – 4
Seeking an integration of life narratives and faith:
Towards Transcendence
In the eyes of one coming from an Asian or African background, in the churches in Europe young people are conspicuously absent. This situation, of course, has to be considered in the light of the demographic details that I mentioned in an earlier talk. However, the situation does raise some questions. Do the elderly go to church just because they belong to a generation to which religion was important? Or, is it because young people do not simply have the time to go church? Or still, people generally become more interested in religion in later years of life?
One of my lecturers, an Anglican priest herself, has a very interesting explanation: the presence of the elderly in the churches may not be a sign that Christianity has become irrelevant in Europe. The capitalist society puts too much pressure on the young people and […]