Old Age: Journey Into Simplicity

By Helen M. Luke

Book Overview

Quick now, here, now, always--
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
--T. S. Eliot (Little Gidding) In this classic text on aging wisely, the renowned Jungian analyst Helen M. Luke reflects on the final journeys described in Homer's Odyssey, Shakespeare's King Lear, and T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding, as well as devoting attention to suffering.

In examining some of the great masterpieces of literature produced by writers at the end of their lives, she elucidates the difference between growing old and disintegrating, encouraging the reader to grow emotionally and mentally during the culminating stage of life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1584200790
• ISBN13: 9781584200796
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: Lindisfarne Books
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Everyone Turning 60 Should Put This on Their Amazon Wish List

A wise and thoughtful guide to the beauty and joy of aging, to taking up a new and important role in community and family life and to the soul's final journey in this life. A bonus for those who love Shakespeare whose last plays she draws on to discuss these important themes. It's the kind of book you read over and over again, each time drawing more deeply from her rich reservoir.

For All Ages and for All Time

Like her former partner Robert A. Johnson, Helen Luke is a master of rendering the psychological meanings in great literature understandable and relevant to all people wishing to gain a deeper level of understanding about the growtn of the human soul. Having plumbed the depths of her own psycho-spiritual aging process(Such Stuff As Dreams are Made On), Ms. Luke has created a work fusing literary scholarship and personal experience into a guide for all of us to follow towards the inevitable. When the time comes for me to plant my oar (read her interpretation of The Odyssey)and turn towards the life of prayer, song and storytelling I will be eternally grateful to have had this wonderful Wise Woman as my guide. Deserving of a wide readership.