Thought provoking | Light on Aging and Dying: Wise Words

World wisdom on aging and dying and living. | Light on Aging and Dying: Wise Words | Helen Nearing

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	• Light on Aging and Dying: Wise Words Helen Nearing Mariner Books, 1997 - 176 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Helen Nearing, a good reader

I don't know much about Helen Nearing, having just begun to read books by and about her and Scott Nearing, her husband. Among a bunch of such books I checked out from library, this is a second title I picked up and read, following *Living the Good Life - How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World* (1970). Reading this title (Living the Good Life), it was really great to know that the Nearings were no simple folks when it comes to intellectual matters. So far from it. Both Helen and Scott Nearing were clear, elegant, and forceful, in their thinking and writing. To such an extent that you soon begin to trust them as your teachers.

And this book shows how--how Helen Nearing became what she was. The "Foreword," which was written when Helen was 91 and near her own death, is almost startling in its, yes, wisdom and profundity, which are clad in simple and clear words. In this regard, the opening words--"There is much speculation about life after death. What about life before death? To learn how to be old is one of life's last lessons. To learn how to die is the very last lesson of all"--sound almost like Rilke, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, who could be unfathomably profound in clear, simple, everyday, words.

The quotes in the book can very well stand on their own as the "wise words" about aging and dying, words that are "too good to lose," as Helen put it. On the other hand, they show us the *reader* Helen Nearing was. You realize early on that many of these quotes do really come from her reading of the books tht contain them. Such realization can be quite refreshing, considering that very many people make quotes (good or bad) from, well, quotes, or book of quotes. The authors and their books that contributed to the making of this gem-like collection of wise words on aging and dying were ones that inspired Helen and led her to what she became.

*My favorite comes from Edith Wharton: "In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy, sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways."

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Thought provoking

As the subtitle notes "An inspirational gathering of thoughts on living a good old age into death" this is a book of quotes from elder on subjects from Good Old Age to The Art of Dying and Death the Great Good. I find its value is simply in talking about death in a positive and not a dreaded manner. Quotes from all walks of life and belief systems.

World wisdom on aging and dying and living.

Helen Nearing's galaxy of quotations from the likes of Ghandi, Freidan, Woolf, Einstein, Wharton, and Lao Tzu (and scintillating many more) on the subject of aging and dying is somewhat like meditating under a summer sky's meteor shower, each new light a brilliant, breath-catcher. With this collection, this "study for eternity" (Nearing quoting Emerson), Nearing restores elements of wonder and mystery to living and dying , rescuing them (and us!) from the pervasive and monotone hellfire school of western religious tradition. Among my many dozens of favorite Nearing choices is this from Hazlitt (Table Talk, 1821) : "To die is only to be as we were before we were born".

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Very Uplifting!

Not only am I a fan of Scott and Helen Nearing, especially Helen, but I am also someone who has read many books on the spritual aspects of death and dying. I think this book is inspirational for people of all ages. It would be an excellent read for someone who is getting older or perhaps someone with an illness who realizess the time of their transition is approaching....but it is also a good book for people who are younger and healthy, as it will help them have a better understanding of life and living life. I am very glad that Helen discussed her husband's death in the Foreward. Scott lived his life fully, right up to the very last breath, and he was very much aware that his time of transition had arrived. He had an awareness that his time had arrived, so he made the choice to leave this world with such dignity. This is an excellent book and it really shines a beautiful light not only on aging and dying, but also on living in the now!

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An inspirational gathering of thoughts on living a good old age into death, selected by the coauthor of the bestselling LIVING THE GOOD LIFE. With her husband, Scott--who lived to be 100--Helen Nearing (1904-1995) was a leading voice in the self-sufficiency movement and nonconformist thinking. Here she reflects, through the wise words of others, on the meaning of a long life and the wonder of what lies beyond.