It’s been a very busy and exciting time since I got back to Toronto from Manitoulin Island. Blue Denim Press launched We All Become Stories, along with The Alphabet Stones by Ursula Pflug and Paradise Revisited by Shane Joseph. September 29 in Toronto had an enthusiastic turnout with music by Max Layton and wonderful readings from Gianna Patriarca and Susan Helwig setting the stage. Meet 66 at King West in Cobourg is a lovely, intimate setting. I appreciated tea in a china pot and little cheese biscuits after the long drive, and the warm and friendly welcome from the local audience to a relative stranger in their midst.
I am happily occupied with following up leads from various media and friends, as well as starting a conversation about aging, old age and memory on #BecomingStories. It seems that “oldness” is cropping up everywhere in the popular press these days. There’s a flood of information about how a “tsunami” (a meme now) of old people will have dire effects on health care, the social safety net, stressed out caregivers and future taxpayers.
And then there’s the “fix-it” literature, from wrinkle cream to financial planning, from lifts of every possible body part to memory strategies, exercises classes and advertisements for a variety of “homes” where old people wont’ be bothered by the outside world i.e. life!
It’s not that looking after your well-being—health, social and financial—isn’t important, but we elders know that there is more to life than that, just as there is at any age. We All Become Stories is the voices of elders like me talking about their experiences of what it’s like to be old—saying that the stereotypes of “oldness” miss the boat. They feel that in spite of the many challenges old age is a fascinating stage of life.
Already, reviewers like Bonnie Kogos, Isobel Harry and Trudy Medcalf, and people who have come to readings, like Liza Franses are telling me that WABS will go some way to fill a gap in the popular, gerontology and social policy “conversations.” Stay tuned here and on social media with #BecomingStories for a growing collection of stories from my readers.
