Eldering in the Age of Consumption

"In modern Western society, we want to preserve everything and we want to live forever. We wage war on old age and write songs about being forever young. Because death is seen as no more, no less than the end of the line--something to be held off and resisted--we live in constant fear of it. But to the Celts, death was inextricably intertwined with life. Every month the moon died and was reborn. Every winter the Sun died and was reborn. The tide came in and the tide receded. To think that you could avoid these natural cycles was not only unthinkable but undesirable. Out of all the dying, something precious and new is always born." 

Sharon Blackie and Stephen Jenkinson share more in this thought-provoking piece.