Relax, Relax at the Dying of the Light

[marmar]

Relax, Relax at the Dying of the Light

Posted on May 8, 2013
By Thomas Hedges, Center for Study of Responsive Law


Welsh poet Dylan Thomas told his ailing father that he should fight encroaching death, not in the hope of evading it, but as something to which he would refuse to bow down. “Old age should burn and rave at close of day,” Thomas wrote in his famous poem. “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he urged. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Sixty years later we live at odds with Thomas. There is little rage and vigor that comes after retirement. Usually it’s bingo. We play it in a sequestered nursing home or on a cruise ship during vacations that might as well be anywhere in the world. Either way, we don’t really care what’s going on outside. We’re old.

We move down to Florida if we can afford it. We can play golf every day and live in gated communities where real life is kept out. We can walk slowly on the beach and read lifestyle magazines that reduce living to health, happiness and saving money.

Indeed these are the tenets of AARP magazine, which is geared toward people ages 50 and up and boasts the largest circulation of any periodical in the world with 35 million readers, according to its Facebook page. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/relax_relax_at_the_dying_of_the_light_20130508/