This woman rocks

In preparation for THIS  WEEK's  CSA International Conference on Positive Aging, am savoring a read-through of Ashton Applewhite's instant classic on expansive living,  This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, lingering over favorite bits, soaking in spot-on passages. 

Astonishing, realizing that less than two months ago, I'd never heard of Ashton, the person I revere as my Thomas Paine, rallying support for expansive living as she rails brilliantly against the constrictions of ageist language & our culture's atrocious attitudes toward those who are inching upward in years, past 60.  (In today's ageist culture, one need only be 55 to get many "senior" discounts, can join AARP once s/he hits 50!)

There have been a few books on issues around getting older that set me thinking as I read about my own family.  How we dealt with the challenges of Dad dying at 62, Mom widowed at 63, back in the day when 65 was seriously considered old age.  How being particular ages & at different stages & even epochs of life, with our own experiences & histories in & out of the family affected how we interacted with our mother, our expectations & our personal agendas.  Ashton's book makes me think of all of those issues & ideations with tenderness, compassion & humor.

Mom & I share an interesting trait - when something goes particularly close to our hearts, it's almost impossible to write about, at least when it happens.  She never did share a detailed description of Whitney & Chad's wedding - the joy of her granddaughter marrying such a wonderful young man filled her too full to put down on paper.  I never could bring myself to write down impressions of Carl & Natalie's wedding, which I was meant to share with Dave & Candy - heart too full for anything so prosaic as mere words & common punctuation.

That was my response to my first read of This Chair Rocks, to my first encounters with Ashton's blog - too filled with wonder at the sense of homecoming to put it down as a posting. 

With the conference coming up at the end of the week, with Ashton giving Friday's opening keynote presentation, it would be a terrible disservice to my sense of the moment to not take the next days to share at least some of the aha moments brought to me through her book.  It hits me that I actually started yesterday, with two postings directly inspired by Ashton.  Interesting to see what bones get laid down over the next 36 hours. 

Stick around, check it out!