This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity - Softcover

Moon, Susan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1590307763 ISBN 13: 9781590307762

Publisher: Shambhala, 2010

Synopsis

In this intimate and funny collection of essays on the sometimes confusing, sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious condition of being a woman over sixty, Susan Moon keeps her sense of humor and she keeps her reader fully engaged. Among the pieces she has included  here are an essay on the gratitude she feels for her weakening bones; observations on finding herself both an orphan and a matriarch following the death of her mother; musings on her tendency to regret the past; thoughts on how not to be afraid of loneliness; appreciation for the inner tomboy; and celebratory advice on how to regard "senior moments" as opportunities to be in the here and now.

About this title

About the Author:

Susan Moon is a writer and longtime Zen Buddhist who teaches popular writing workshops, mostly in California. She is the former editor of Turning Wheel: The Journal of Socially Engaged Buddhism. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Review:

“Moon is like a Buddhist Anne Lamott--confronting her life bravely and unapologetically. Reading as a man in his mid-sixties, [I] welcomed her honest ambivalence about aging. Her style is conversational yet often beautifully vivid and clear.”— New York Journal of Books
 “A funny, honest, and deeply personal book.  This collection of confessional essays makes for absorbing reading.”—Mandala magazine

“Refreshingly honest and enlightening. In this sterling collection of essays, Susan Moon looks at the rewards, blessings, drawbacks, and challenges of aging.  We are so grateful that Moon has written this insightful book in which she passes on what all this has meant to her.”—Spirituality & Practice

“Gentle essays . . . long on dignity.  Moon uses detail vividly in her determination to make peace with the many failures of brain and body (from forgetting her Social Security number to wondering if she’ll ever have sex again). Her best writing occurs when memory, emotion, and spirit coalesce as she recovers parts of herself left behind in childhood or comes to terms with solitude.”—Publishers Weekly

“Moon shares stories of her journey, providing on each page the deep intimacy experienced with an old friend over a cup of tea, the kind that satisfies and leaves you wanting more.  She plunges below the surface to explore grief, depression, loneliness, and peace, without losing her characteristic wry humor and infectious delight.  And in the process, her stories become our stories.”—Turning Wheel (The Buddhist Peace Fellowship) 


“[Moon] does not shy away from any aspect of aging, from sore knees to foggy memory, but also maintains a sassy sense of humor.  Perhaps if more people were as open about aging as Moon is, we shouldn’t all be so uncomfortable with the idea. This is a great read for anyone pondering the future.”— Sacramento Book Review

“This is a book about aging, but it’s not at all depressing.  Susan Moon is a very funny lady.  Moon shows us aging in a breathtakingly honest way.  I found that I liked her more and more as the book unfolded.  This Is Getting Old is beautiful, warm . . . existential.”—Wildmind.org

“Moon’s stories are wonderful companions and guides as I go about my ordinary life.”—Maxine Hong Kingston

“Aging is the biggest issue facing me and everyone I know. This book is poignant, funny, and spot-on, and I am tremendously grateful to Susan Moon for writing it. I love this book!”—Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

"This Is Getting Old is a sweet, mellow, funny, wise, sad, and deeply affecting book. Susan Moon's essays are so disarmingly honest, so personal and plain, that they will make you forget what an astonishingly rare and profound achievement this is."—Norman Fischer, author of Sailing Home and Taking Our Places

About this edition

• Publisher: Shambhala
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1590307763
• ISBN 13: 9781590307762
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 192