The Long Thanatopsis

“Thanatopsis,” the title of William Cullen Bryant’s 1817 poem centered on a meditation on death, is applied in the focus article The Long Thanatopsis (and our discussion) as an invitation to reinvent the way a generation chooses to age as it faces that final curtain call.

That GenX author is looking – surprise! – to the baby boomer generation for inspiration and guidance on how to blunt the sharp edges of old age. Yes, those members of the original me-generation, have now been called upon to show the way to these youngsters. How do you, of any age, assess the situation in the nine years since this self-proclaimed futurist first published his predictions?

Among the many “challenges” of the elderly that we had discussed almost a year ago MM 1/30/23 Aged is the existential question: why do we (i.e. those not-yet-old) neglect and disdain the one vulnerable group we will all eventually join? After all, old age is not contagious. The shame of it all is that the already-olds become the “Other.”

If the answer is that it amounts to an attempt to flee our own aging and mortality, do you share the author’s optimism that American culture over the next thirty years will be less obsessed with youth or is it simply that the ideal “me” in the me-generation is itself aging?

Perhaps, more broadly, the sorts of meaning that Americans attach to aging and death will become richer, more public, for people of all ages as the pig-in-a-python boomer generation slowly moves through (and on). Colleges will teach courses on death and dying. The subject will become more normalized for Gen X's kids as they take on more elderly caretaking jobs. Hospice sitcoms?

Let’s not get carried away but we might speculate on all the ways traditional and institutional housing will be designed to maximize psychological and emotional well-being, even beyond the means mentioned in the article. May we learn as a culture the art and craft of aging and dying together – perhaps with the assistance of death doulas – as we embrace this transition (like birth) as a communal event Guardian, End-Of-Life Party? Technology and pharmaceuticals may certainly play a part.

For the real energy behind our late-stage discussion will likely revolve around the so-called good death, tagged in the article as just another lifestyle choice. Most of us are mature enough to recognize that death is not a life bug but a feature. Why is it, then, that one’s very agency excludes control over its voluntary termination? Perhaps the difficulty to even talk about death stems from the bundles of ego and anxiety we discussed in MM 8/16/18 Have We Forgotten How To Die?.

It’s time we reclaim that language as we skip the euphemisms that treat death as a matter of embarrassment and shame. One personal anecdote: crossed the street after a periodontist appointment to stop in at Crist Mortuary to price out their “no muss, no fuss” advanced-pay cremation plan . . . . in case you were wondering, the bare bones, ashes in a plain cardboard tube plan is $3,100, extra charge if you want them shot from a cannon a‘ la Hunter D. Thompson.

That would be The Short Thanatopsis.