Jim, W5JAW, a very proficient guitarist, told me he won't play a long piece any longer. He won't play a suite of Bach as a whole. It is too much burden for him now, as he said. But he would play any favorite piece in the suites. Actually, he played the prelude of Nr1 suite before starting the QSO with me this morning. He also told me he won't care for the tempo or the way of expression for certain music. He would play a piece as he wants to.
Aging gradually deprive us of the strength or the functions of our body, that is, of our performance ability. I know he is a man of sports and has been enjoying rawing boat etc. His efforts to stay young might have slowed down the process of aging. He might be younger mentally and physically than me. But even with such efforts, he could not avoid this aging process. Even in that process of aging, how free and vivid his attitude toward music is! He might be able to say something like this as he has achived success as an amateur guitarist. But it was still encouraging to me a lot to see how he accepts the fact of aging.
Of late, I often think of the meaning of aging in my own life. It seems quite difficult for me to accept it as it is. It has been an absurdity. I need the future to live. But aging will greet me with death in possible future. Hopefully, I could be strong, or I should say, could be free from the sadness of aging and death, even if it is not able to be averted. His attitude toward performing instrument was really suggestive to me as for this point. May our aging bring us strength and wisdom like Jim had.
Thanks for the nice chat, Jim.
Shin
ReplyDeleteA very difficult subject that is only understood by those of us who have reached that period in our life cycle when our purpose for living becomes less obvious and each day physical things are more difficult versus easier. I have shared with you my questions about life and selection. Why am I here and my brother of a similar age long gone. What has kept me out of harm's way when other's around me have not been so rewarded.
But, I look back at my life and am grateful for the opportunity to have had the life that I have had. I could be gone tomorrow and I would not feel slighted. But, like you, I am hoping that I am able to remain fit and healthy through the balance of my time. My worse fear, as I enter this last score of my life, is not of dying, but of losing my ability to enjoy being alive.
Don,
DeleteThanks for the considerate comment. These issues might be shared by those of our generation. Aging gives us various problems we should do with by ourselves. Everyone has coped with them and is destined to do so by him/herself.
I fully understand that it could be a serious problem if we would be bed ridden and won't be productive any longer due to such as cerebral bleeding/thrombosis etc. We should be ready for such occasion with insurance. I don't know if it is possible for me but, as V.E. Frankle, the famous psychiatrist in Austria, has told, we might realize the value to accept our destine as it is in such an occasion. We won't be defeated with such an attitude toward life. If we would lose our intelligence or even consciousness, it won't be possible. In such an occasion, we might be in the transition from life to death. We don't need to struggle with life at that time any longer. I only hope I could appreciate and enjoy Bach then.
The biggest concern at present for me is why aged people are losing interests to others. They seem to be confined to themselves. Their concern is always limited to the things in the past. Why does it occur to most aged people? I am not exceptional as you see my topic in this blog is apt to be related with the events or things in the past. This is what I experience in the QSOs with old timers on the radio as well. It may be related with aging process itself. Is it possible for us to prevent from this habit? I believe vivid communication with others is one of the sources which vivifies us in aged years. Without it, our mind might be full of drab landscapes.
Aging had been deemed as a declining process when one lose every function of body and of mind. But gerontological psychiatry has proved it is a process to properly realize ourselves and to achieve our ends. Though we could never be too optimistic for the future, we should believe the positive side of aging.
Shin