Composing a Further Life Quotes

“The critical question about regret is whether experience led to growth and new learning. Some people seem to keep on making the same mistakes, while others at least make new ones. Regret and remorse can be either paralyzing or inspiring. [p. 199]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“... as we age we have not only to readdress earlier developmental crises but also somehow to find the way to three affirmations that may seem to conflict. ... We have to affirm our own life. We have to affirm our own death. And we have to affirm love, both given and received. [p. 88]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“Moving is both liberating and debilitating. Undertaken too late, it is a very stressful process, one that sometimes seems to catapult people into frail old age, and undertaken too soon, it may preempt other possibilities. [p. 38]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“Sorting gets harder as time goes on--it requires a sort of ruthless decisiveness, while indecision results in endless dithering. Five moves, they say, equal a fire. But those who haven't moved may begin to need a fire. [p. 38]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“We never promised we would stay the same,/But only we would shape our change/From this now single clay.[p. 82]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“... active wisdom--an entire cohort with something new to offer to the world as years of experience combined with continuing health. [p. 52]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“It's all about being in control of myself as an older woman who lives alone, and it's all about how I am going to do what I have to do to be as strong as I can be and be confident that I can do what I need to do as an older person. [p. 62]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“After all, most of us have lived lives based on commitments made without any way of knowing where they would lead. The uncertainty is an essential element in commitment, the acceptance of consequences an essential element in fidelity. [p. 80]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“As people grow older, some of the ways they have contributed in the past may no longer be possible, but the challenge to society is not only to provide help and care where these are needed but also to offer the opportunity to contribute and care for others [p. 8]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom

“So this little boy was--I became her confidant a little too early, I think. It didn't seem to warp me exactly, but it left me with a little too much knowledge at an early age. [p. 143]”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom