I first read this book a few years after it was written in the late 60’s by a woman who was in her 80’s at the time. Back then I was in my early 20’s with many years still ahead of me before reaching old age. Now with only one year remaining before my 70th birthday, I know what Florida Scott-Maxwell was getting at when she said: “We who are old know that age is more than a disability. It is an intense and varied experience…” So true!! It’s why I would never want to be a younger woman, especially in this culture with its emphasis on rushing around on the surface of life in pursuit of such superficial and trivial things. But I can remember what it was like to be that way…and not always liking it all that much because I could sense that I hadn’t figured out what really mattered or where to find it. The first time I read this book it struck me that what I found there made a lot more sense than the values and priorities of our youth-obsessed society. And so this became one of those books that has accompanied me all throughout my life. I’ve gone back to it again and again over the years at various stages, dog-earing pages and marking passages that stood out. Like this one: “You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality.” To become “fierce with reality” is a goal worth pursuing and Florida Scott Maxwell is a great mentor. Although parts of her book seem a little dated (she was writing a few years before the women’s rights movement gained momentum, and decades before the coming of the internet) it’s her wisdom that is timeless. She writes about the enormous complexity of life and what’s involved in living intentionally and authentically. Now that I’m much closer to the age Florida Scott-Maxwell was when she wrote this marvelous book than I was when I first read it, it’s easier for me to understand the wisdom in what says about being an old woman. It’s why whenever I hear someone say that 60 is the new 40 and 50 is the new 30, etc. etc. I want to say “no it’s not and who in their right mind would want it to be. Because there’s something about the “intense and varied experience” of being old that just isn’t possible when you’re young. I think it’s all about discovering what it means to be “fierce with reality.”
