This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity
In her mid-60s, Bay Area Zen practitioner Moon, former editor of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship'sTurning Wheelmagazine, writes, I wanted to look right into the face of oldness. What is it? Gentle essays are grouped into three sections: mind/body, relationships, and spirit. Moon uses detail vividly in her determination to make peace with the many failures of brain and body (from forgetting her Social Security number to wondering if she'll ever have sex again), though not all readers may want to follow her into the intricacies of retinal detachment and an elderly mother on a ventilator. Her best writing occurs when memory, emotion, and spirit coalesce as she recovers parts of herself left behind in childhood or comes to terms with solitude. Overall, the book is long on dignity but a bit short on both Zen and humor, focusing on earnest self-disclosure. But Moon's honesty about the inner and outer realities of aging conveys an urgent reminder of inevitable loss; indeed, as she reminds us, I am not getting old alone.(June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.