Getting old, as some of you know (or are discovering), is a creepy experience — as in c r e e p i n g relentlessly. One day I’m skipping 13 steps to the first floor as I’ve done a 1000 times, the next I’m schlepping one step at a time, huffing and puffing, gripping the handrail. On some mornings, while trying to put on underwear, both legs end up in the same opening as I fall backwards onto the bed. Most times I chuckle as this Old Man tackles simple tasks that — not that long ago — were routine and unremarkable. Occasionally, I’m not amused.
“Don’t worry. Everything’s out of control” writes Ven. Ajahn Sona, abbot of a Buddhist monastery near Kamloops, BC. [1]
Herbert Fingarette (1921-2018) taught philosophy for 40 years: in a 1999 book [2] he argued that fearing death was irrational. When you die, “there is nothing.” Why should we fear the absence of being when we won’t be there ourselves to suffer it.” At age 97, shortly before death of heart failure, he allows his grandson to film the intimacy of death approaching. The fear of dying had caught up with him.
“It haunts me, the idea of dying soon,” the old man says, “whether there’s a good reason or not. I walk around often and ask myself, What is the point of it all?. There must be something I’m missing. I wish I knew.” He admits that there “isn’t any good answer” to the “foolish question” of understanding mortality. “The answer might be … the silent one.” [3]
[1] Ajahn Sona. (2021). Life is a near death experience, p. 87. [2] Fingarette, H. (1999). Death: Philosophical soundings. [3] Buder, E. (Jan 14, 2020). “A 97-year old philosopher ponders life and death”, The Atlantic,
Wonderful video, thank you Peter.