Look at you two, he said. And we did.

A poem about finding dignity and connection in illness and dying.

… meditation may have salutary effects on telomere length by reducing cognitive stress and stress arousal and increasing positive states of mind and hormonal factors that may promote telomere maintenance. Aspects of this model are currently being tested in ongoing trials of mindfulness meditation.

I wept in my clothes on the street
where olive trees turned their foil palms.

Live like a suckling babe,
for Death has not come for you.

The Buddha says that life is short.

Though I’m skinny,
sick, and feeble…

now old, it has become like hemp bark—
the word of the truthful one is confirmed.

A guided meditation on the aging body.

It is possible to care without helping. It is also possible to help without caring. Given these two options, most people would choose the second, especially in difficult moments. Dear reader, this is an honest book.

Help requires the establishment of an interpretive context or system of meaning — a relationship, in several senses — in which help does not threaten the creativity, autonomy, or personhood of the helpee and in which, instead, help facilitates development and strengthens the self. This is a creative act.

There are, bhikkhus, these four qualities that make one an elder. What four?

Consistent with study predictions, mixed effect linear models indicated that the MBSR program reduced loneliness, compared to small increases in loneliness in the control group (treatment condition × time interaction: F(1,35) = 7.86, p = .008). Moreover, at baseline, there was an association between reported loneliness and upregulated pro-inflammatory NF-κB-related gene expression in circulating leukocytes, and MBSR downregulated this NF-κB-associated gene expression profile at post-treatment. Finally, there was a trend for MBSR to reduce C Reactive Protein (treatment condition × time interaction: (F(1,33) = 3.39, p = .075).

That summer we’d hop fences
and call them gates…

Backward crossovers into years before: airy
afternoons licking the wooden spoon…

By 2050, we project that Buddhists and the religiously unaffiliated will have the oldest populations (both will have 32% above the age of 60), whereas Muslims will remain the youngest religious group (with only 16% above the age of 60).

While sipping coffee in my mother’s Toyota, we hear the birdcall of two teenage boys in the parking lot…

My grandfather would spell certain words so that the dog couldn’t comprehend…

Note: The poem’s epigraph mentions this photograph.

… the limbs are flabby & wrinkled; the back, bent forward

When Ānanda sees the Buddha’s sense faculties fading, the Buddha speaks on the decrepitude of old age.

It’s an anthropological fact that masculinity is a bit fragile in that it has to be constructed. Every society has worked on constructing roles and rites-of-passage for men that attach them to their communities. [But] this [nurturing, pro-social] behavior—being learned—is rather fragile, and can disappear quite quickly under circumstances that no longer teach it effectively.

A tour de force on the state of men and boys today along with its political—and personal—ramifications.

… did she feel her heart chambers darkened

What is good all the way through old age?

But beauty wasn’t enough.

I would frequently see adults recount something a child had said that was particularly provocative or deep by describing it as “adorable.” “How cute they are.” Even well-meaning adults just kind of dismiss children’s larger questions and ideas.

On taking children seriously as philosophers and as fellow human beings.

you think
You’re a kind of monster
 
And maybe you are,
Just not an ugly one.
 
That whole business
Will come later.

All those times I was bored…

I’m on the horizon of a seven hour trip and it’s quiet…

I sit at the ocean’s edge,
At the grey ocean’s edge,
With you in my lap.

relying on my youth,
I despised anyone who was not my equal…

A former courtesan roars her lion’s roar.

Once I heard a scientist with
Alzheimer’s on the radio, trying to
figure out why he could no longer
draw a clock.

A poem based on this radio show about a scientist losing his mind to dimentia.

… you have this young brain that has a lot of what neuroscientists call “plasticity”. It can change really easily, essentially. But it’s not very good at putting on its jacket and getting to preschool

A deeply optimistic and warm view of children as “explorers.”

You have to live your way into a new way of thinking.

An earnest introduction to humanity.

Primarily intended for young Americans, The Art of Being Human has enough perennial wisdom and charming sincerity to make it an enjoyable read for most.

Triumphing over the dragon was a genuine heroic quest. That’s not the problem. The problem is that at a later stage in life, we’re not able to let go of that. We’re not able to see, “What is the dragon that’s in front of me right now?”

A talk about psychological development and its relationship to the monk’s journey.

Avalanches above, business continues below.

With its tropical climate, lower costs and culture of respect for the elderly, Thailand is attracting families dealing with dementia and Alzheimer’s from as far away as Europe.

… he longed for a place to escape to. And then he found Heyoon.

せせらぎが止まるよ 重なる髪かざり
せせらぎが止まるよ 風向きが変わるよ

An exuberant celebration of youthful disaster.

See also the heart-warming Tonofon Remote Festival Version recorded during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in June 2020.