Growing Up in Old Age

by Margaret Howe Freydberg

Freydberg, Margaret Howe

224 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1998

Reviews

[Elaine]

“Growing Up in Old Age” by Margaret Freydberg is a delightful collection of essays about the aging process. Sometimes I longed for more story, especially when she threw out a narrative nugget; sometimes I grew weary of her overthinking, a personal weakness of mine as well. Mostly, though, I loved sitting back and pondering Freydberg's wisdom. Hers is not a book to read quickly. It is not a book of data. Its centerpiece gem is a Buddhist parable of a man clinging to a vine on the side of a rock; above him and below him are growling tigers, and mice are gnawing on the vine. The man spots a luscious strawberry, plucks it, and eats it: “It is delicious.” Freydberg returns again and again to that strawberry, tasty and sweet. I also love her definition of the I Am-ness of herself as a combination of her hereditary and environmental past along with her Being now, in the present, albeit fleeting, moment. This book is one to savor, a delicious strawberry.

[Karen]

Peggy is 102 and is adorable. She wrote this book when she was in her 80's.