Something in me snapped when I read his email. He was dissing something valuable to me, and I spat right back at him. "I know what you are against," I wrote "but what are you for?" Realizing how rude that probably sounded, I wrote him again, asking what he was passionate about. What engaged him? What was the positive "frame"?
Strangely, I haven't heard back. Online, such questions can sound offensive. Online, a lot can be either misread or badly said.
I find that as we get older, we can get narrower in our sense of adventure, our outlooks, our willingness to tolerate or enjoy the "other" whatever the "other" is.
And, frankly, it scares me. I don't think it's something that naturally happens with age, but perhaps the psychic hurts and physical limits that accompany aging help exarcebate it.
I'm trying to fight this for all it's worth, because life is precious, and it's too short to be bitter a lot of the time. Until her last year, when many of her friends were gone, my grandmother embraced life. She was a safe harbor for her children, her grandchildren, and her friends. I want to be like that if I am graced with old age.
And I'm starting right now...trying to embrace beauty and light, and love, and hope...even in unlikely places.
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