There Goes The Fender (On Conscious Aging)

Arnold Mindell, founder of the Process Work Center and creator of World Work in Portland Oregon, passed away on June 11th.?

He taught me so much, but the one thing I retain more than anything else comes from his book,?The Shaman's Body.?It's the idea that old age offers us the greatest temptation of our lives - to lay down and rest instead of giving ourselves to a world that needs our seasoned wisdom.?

Around the same time as finding Arnie, I discovered Joseph Campbell, the greatest mythologist of our times. He left us with a way to view and engage with our aging.?

From The Power of Myth:

"The problem in middle life, when the body has reached its climax of power and begins to decline, is to identify yourself, not with the body, which is falling away, but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle. This is something I learned from myths. What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light? Or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle?

One of the psychological problems in growing old is the fear of death. People resist the door of death. But this body is a vehicle of consciousness, and if you can identify with the consciousness, you can watch this body go like an old car. There goes the fender, there goes the tire, one thing after another— but it’s predictable. And then, gradually, the whole thing drops off, and consciousness, rejoins consciousness."

At 61 years of age, I am just starting to face this temptation.?

Right when the world might need me most... right when it is definitely easier to take a breather... right when I have something aged enough in me to be worth saying... right when my consciousness is at its peak. (Or so it seems - we're not done yet!)

If we could move one needle in our societal concepts, I'd love to move the one that says old age is useless. Incapable. Dottering.?

The younger crowd is valuable, too, no doubt. And some jobs are better left to those with more energy and the capacity to move fast. But there is insight that comes only after getting in the fight, getting beat up, getting a few wins, and watching what happens next.?

Slow is needed and hard to come by in the midst of great ambition.

Also, this is not about beauty, which might be why it's assumed that aging (can we call it "eldering" instead?) can't be of value. "We ain't getting prettier," as I like to joke with my friends. And it is true that beauty wins in our culture, but only for a while.?

Truth is, every single surface beauty will be lost. Fenders will fall. We who have been overly attached will have to face that loss (hand raised, though I have been working on it for a long time).

Such a waste of time. I know a whole lot of folks - men and women - who want to get back all the days, weeks, months, and accumulative years we spent wanting to be more beautiful.?

The temptation to opt out as we age is absolutely there.?

Why not? We earned it, we rationalize. Besides, if no one can see us faltering, we might not have to face it so directly.

I don't know about you, but as a conscious leader, I didn't come here to give in order to get, or to hide behind my ego. I came to serve. I think a lot of conscious leaders would agree. But - and this is essential to say and say often - we need to hear more about that. A lot more. We need to say it.?

So, here I am, calling it out. Aging is natural, beautiful, worthy, and elders are needed now more than ever.?

Come to serve and I promise you will have a more rewarding life. Then, keep serving when you reach fine-wine status. Bring your greater consciousness to our culture and a real richness will return to it. Reach back and help the younger generations wake up so they don't have to make quite as many mistakes as we did - or at least the same ones.?

Elders, here's your rally call:?

The future is still bright and so are we. (Fenders notwithstanding.)

Hi! I'm Robin Rice. Please connect. Also, join me for Stories About Stories, a book-on-podcast that is designed to help you work through your own life stories and how you tell them. You'll find it on any of your favorite podcast platforms. You can also sign up at BeWhoYouAre.com to get my Sunday Story Prompts.