Thomas Hubbard reviews Priscilla Long's Dancing with the Muse in Old Age
Dancing with the Muse in Old Age
A review by Thomas Hubbard
How old are you? Do you know somebody just half your age? Do you trust your own knowledge, your experience, yourjudgment, more than you trust that younger person’s? For your sake, let's hope so. Priscilla Long's new book, Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, delivers a litany of examples, anecdotes and statistics giving us good reason to view all ages through this same principle.
Despite most positions of ultimate responsibility in business and government being occupied by older adults, ageism pervades most of our culture. Note how many of us twist our language every which way to avoid calling ourselves orour associates old. In the introduction to her book, Long notes “Some [of us] insist that the word elderly and elders is respectful, whereas the word old is not. Others make up terms, such as olders…”
Finally, in business the truth comes on the bottom line. If “NEW” on the packaging of soap, breakfast cereal or patent medicine is expected to increase sales, it becomes obvious that a large segment of the population holds a negative view of old. Priscilla Long is working to change that.
Note how many of us twist our language every which way to avoid calling ourselves or our associates old.
This book begins with a statistic: “In 2021, more than 16 percent of the United States population is age 65 or older; by 2030, this number is expected to rise to more than 20 percent.” By the way of explaining the numbers, Long notes this is partly due to the aging of baby boomers but, overall, longevity is increasing while birthrates are falling. She adds, “Longerlives give us more time. More time to do. More time to create. More time to change and learn and grow.” She follows with brief profiles of half a dozen aged artists, all highly successful.
Many of the dozens of artists, musicians, athletes and scientists over 90 years old in this book regularly run or swim several miles, some climb mountains, others work out or play tennis to keep in shape. She notes that such exemplary people do these activities largely because they believe they can. She follows that “Internalized ageism—whether conscious or not—is an important cause of decline,” and she proceeds with a litany of aged people who remain productive despite disabilities.
About midway through this book, Long explains the statistical U-shaped curve of happiness, and how it relates to age. We learn how it happens that teenagers or young adults are very happy with themselves and then self-satisfaction seemsat a low point around mid-life—40 or 50 years— and then by age 70, or perhaps even 80, satisfaction and happiness peak again.
Nearly a whole chapter of this book lists, explains, and debunks faulty research projects excusing or promoting ageism. Cautioning against the possible harms of ageist terminology such as “declining years,” or “sunset years” or “downhill time” and the like, Long explains how exposure to the untruths and half-truths of ageism can form mental habits in young people that they may hold even into their old age, inhibiting and possibly spoiling their enjoyment of later years.
At the end of each chapter, this book provides questions and exercises to help readers gain perspective on how they want their old age to be, and how to make it that way. Priscilla Long has given us a strong inspiration and a valuable reference for old people and those who love them.
Thomas Hubbard, a retired writing instructor and spoken word performer, authored Nail and other hardworking poems, Year of the Dragon Press, 1994; Junkyard Dogz (also available on audio CD); and Injunz, a chapbook. He designed and published Children Remember Their Fathers (an anthology), and books by seven other authors. His book reviews have appeared in Square Lake, Raven Chronicles, New Pages and The Cartier Street Review. Publication credits include poems in Yellow Medicine Review, spring 2010, I Was Indian, editor Susan Deer Cloud (Foothills Publishing, 2010), and Florida Review; and short stories in Red Ink and Yellow Medicine Review.
Dancing with the Muse in Old Age, by Priscilla Long
ISBN 978-1-6849202-0-4
Coffeetown Press, Kenmore, Washington
2022, paperback, 220 pages, $15.95