The Importance of Old Age
Excerpts from James Hillman's The Force of Character and the Lasting Life
Blessing is the one gift we want from the old, and the one great gift only they can bestow.
Anyone can applaud above-average achievements and award the outstanding. The old, however, are able to recognize the beauty that is hidden from usual sight, not because they have seen so much through the years, but because the years have forced them to see so oddly. What one needs blessed are the oddities of character specific to our solitary uniqueness and therefore so hard to bear. I can bless my own virtues, but I need a well-trained, long-suffering eye to bless the virtues concealed in my vices.
A culture is preserved by the old. This cliché usually means that they guard the old ways, the old knowledge, the old stories; they are wise and give prudent counsel. Rather, I think, culture is preserved by the old because they enjoy the odd, study others for it, and locate the essence of character in what is peculiar to each phenomenon. A culture that does not appreciate the character of anything eccentric to its model tends to homogenize and to standardize its definition of the good citizen. The old preserve culture by means of the stubborn sameness of their unsuitable peculiarities.
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Modern progress lowers the value of older people at the same time as it adds years to our lives. The longer we live the less we are worth, and we will live longer!
It is also commonly believed that relatively traditional societies (Bangladesh, India, Nigeria) pay more respect to elders than do relatively modern ones (Chile, Argentina, Israel). Therefore, the importance of old age is in inverse relation to progress. But this cliché does not obtain in some very traditional, “archaic” societies where geronticide is customary, nor does it obtain in modern societies such as Ireland and Russia, where older people are held in high regard.”
Esteem for the old is less a function of modernization than of the vitality of tradition that maintains links with another, invisible world, whether through religion, custom, superstition, or folklore, or by means of common poetic speech. In both Ireland and Russia, poetry thrives.
The disparagement of values generally associated with the old—tricks, skills, and know-how; familiarity with local lore, songs and phrases, and superstitions; and just plain slowness—lowers their value. In the context of these diminished values, we more easily justify geronticide. We call this “putting them out of their misery” and cover it over with more antiseptic language such as “DNR” (“Do Not Resuscitate”), euthanasia, death-hastening, and assisted suicide. These practices take place in private homes, nursing homes, and hospitals far more often than reach the public eye. Even if our society does not condone beating, stabbing, and strangling the aged, in some hearts the wish is often there. Elder abuse has become a widespread syndrome in the United States. Too often the wish becomes the deed. In general, in the United States, we hate aging and hate the old for embodying it.
It is not old age as such, but the abandonment of character that dooms later years to ugliness.
We can’t imagine aging’s beauty because we look only through the eyes of physiology. As Aristotle said, “The soul’s beauty is harder to see than beauty of the body.” Without the idea of character, the old are merely lessened and worsened people and their longevity is society’s burden.
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The last years, so valuable for reviewing life and making amends, for cosmological speculation and the confabulation of memories into stories, for sensory enjoyment of the world’s images, and for connections with apparitions and ancestors—these values our culture has let wither.
If you would find decrepitude and rectify it, then look to the culture and begin with the rigor mortis of its skeptical and analytical philosophies and the loneliness and dementia of its imagination.
If the value of a long life relies on a long résumé, we know that most of this past history is distorted or forgotten in later years, and not ready to hand for exercising judgment. We cannot come up with examples, cannot recall similar occasions. Only if their character has refined its intelligence, broadened its learning, and been tested in crisis can the old serve society. Society asks for qualities beyond stamina, remembrances, and piled-up “experience.” That is why we turn to the character-revealing stories of aged rabbis, monks, and masters, and to interviews with old painters, writers, and poets. As witnesses to character they are larger than life.
Taken from James Hillman, The Force of Character and the Lasting Life, Ballantine Books, 2000
Photo by Tehzeeb Kazmi on Unsplash
"Without the idea of character, the old are merely lessened and worsened people and their longevity is society’s burden."
You have shared this excerpt at the perfect time. I recently read another of Paul Kershaw's (from "Generation Squeeze") columns in the Globe and Mail and was viscerally terrified that the future his organization is demanding involves rampant elder abuse and geronticide. There is much to be concerned about with Canada's current crises of overburdened health care, and lack of long term care homes as it is....the people at Generation Squeeze make me feel like I am going to be abandoned in my hour of need. They seem to forget that no-one escapes old age and failing health. Raising healthy kids (which is one of their "solutions") will not spare the population from the ravages of age.
“ If you would find decrepitude and rectify it, then look to the culture and begin with the rigor mortis of its skeptical and analytical philosophies and the loneliness and dementia of its imagination.” Wow!