{"id":86851,"date":"2021-01-17T22:34:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T20:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=86851"},"modified":"2021-01-17T22:34:58","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T20:34:58","slug":"reflections-from-the-8th-stage-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/reflections-from-the-8th-stage-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections From The 8th Stage Of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"86851","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":80223,"related_cahpter":"657","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"by Rabbi Richard \"Rim\" Meirowitz\u00a0 & Reverend Edwin S. Vaeni\r\n","content":"<p>We live in Brooksby Village, 1350 independent living units, 2,000 people, food delivered to our door during our 4 months (going on forever) Covid-19 lockdown. The youngest of us is 62, the oldest perhaps 102. When the psalmist speaks of \u201cthe years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty\u201d it hits home.<\/p>\n<p>The life we had before we came here is like a dream; the child we once carried in our arms now brings us groceries. And all of us think, at least occasionally, that our lives have been filled with \u201ctoil and trouble.\u201d It actually makes us feel better to grade our lives on a curve!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.simplypsychology.org\/Erik-Erikson.html\">Eric Erickson\u2019s classic study of the eight stages of life<\/a>, especially the eighth stage\u2014old-age\u2014is a helpful tool for reflection. It is a challenge to reflect on our life span up to this point with the goal of seeking acceptance of\u00a0<em>all<\/em>\u00a0that we have experienced with as much honesty and courage as possible.<\/p>\n<p>In this context, Psalm 90 has become an important resource for us. The psalmist is bold in the face of the briefness and fragility of human life. He is breathtakingly honest about the reason for our short lives filled with toil and trouble: we are consumed by God\u2019s anger\u2014yikes! How can we thrive in the midst of God\u2019s wrath? Verse 11 gives us a clue when it asks, \u201cWho\u00a0<em>considers<\/em>\u00a0the power of Your anger?\u201d We must consider it for God\u2019s anger is our way of speaking about the hard parts of our lives that our mistakes, missteps, and sins\u2014intentional or not\u2014have created.<\/p>\n<p>Just as we speak of God\u2019s love and forgiveness, we must also contemplate the anger that might arise from the Divine as a result of constantly dealing with covenant-breaking and self-destructive human beings. Does God\u00a0<em>actually<\/em>\u00a0feel any or all of these emotions? Who can know\u2014we are but finite creatures attempting to fathom the Infinite! But this is our way of framing and processing the full gamut of human experience using the classical language of our Jewish and Christian traditions, connecting us to countless other spiritual seekers across space and time.<\/p>\n<p>Just as we reckon with the notion of God\u2019s anger, we are also listening carefully to the psalmist\u2019s call to \u201ccount\u201d our days,\u201d that is, to come to grips with our mortality. Learning to accept one\u2019s mortality is no mean feat in a death-defying (and denying) culture that believes that (white) people are entitled to live forever and can do so by means of technology and domination.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Weaving together the two previous points, we arrive at what is perhaps the most important\u00a0statement in the psalm about the challenge of obtaining a \u201cwise heart.\u201d We take wisdom in this context to mean an ongoing interplay of hope and acceptance as we continue to learn the fine art of humility\u2014living compassionately and purposefully in the time we are given on this earth.<\/p>\n<p>Our goal as old men is to celebrate, instead of denying our mortality. We intend to work on that goal as members of our specific community of elders. When we learn to trust the eighth stage of the life-process using Psalm 90 as a spiritual guide, we trust that God will \u201csatisfy us with steadfast love\u201d and that we will learn to accept and celebrate every single day and event of our remaining days, including both gladness and pain. Three cheers for mortality! It is truly God\u2019s greatest gift to us right now.<\/p>\n<p>For the original and the biographies of the authors, see: <a href=\"https:\/\/ifyc.org\/article\/ps-90-reflections-8th-stage-life\">https:\/\/ifyc.org\/article\/ps-90-reflections-8th-stage-life<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":86852,"id":86852,"title":"Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2","filename":"Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/reflections-from-the-8th-stage-of-life\/meirowitz-x-vaeni2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"meirowitz-x-vaeni2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":86851,"date":"2021-01-17 20:34:44","modified":"2021-01-17 20:34:54","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1042,"height":712,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2-300x205.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":205,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2-768x525.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":525,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2-1024x700.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":700,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2.jpg","1536x1536-width":1042,"1536x1536-height":712,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2.jpg","2048x2048-width":1042,"2048x2048-height":712,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2.jpg","post_full_size-width":1042,"post_full_size-height":712,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Meirowitz-x-Vaeni2-615x420.jpg","home_baner-width":615,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Reflections From The 8th Stage Of Life","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"by Rabbi Richard \"Rim\" Meirowitz\u00a0 & Reverend Edwin S. 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