Age discrimination (ageism) creeps up on us when we aren’t looking. One day, we belong in the mainstream. The next, we older people find ourselves invisible in a grey (or beige) crowd. People describe us, collectively, as a burden.
‘Our village must mobilise to support the well being of elders,’ read a recent headline in the West Australian Newspaper. The headline twists the African proverb, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’.
Aboriginal people across Australia celebrate NAIDOC Week which starts today, Sunday 8th July, and goes to 15 July. Since since I was a very young woman, the paths of some Aboriginal women have crossed mine and enriched it it many different ways.
Our Souls at Night by American novelist Kent Haruf managed to sooth my soul and stimulate my imagination. The beautiful poetic prose in this slim book and the theme of love of different kinds in old age work together to create magic.
