View from my window

I always wonder about the relationship of ageing with the human spirit. Earlier, when I was much younger, I used to look upon ageing as a damaging and destructive phenomena. But I assumed that to be the human condition - universal and inevitable. But, I wonder now! Maybe because I am ageing myself and I do not see that inevitable, holistic, destructive phenomena happening to me. The social conditioning in me of how ageing is 'supposed' to happen as opposed to how it 'is' happening is quite dissimilar. Now, this is not to say that I do not believe that the gait slows down, the joints start creaking, the skin starts sagging and the sight grows dimmer.   But is that all there is to us? The physical self? There is the intellect, the spirit, the emotions and at some level all of these are interconnected and, yes, interconnected even with the physical self but they are also, at the same time, separate. This separation becomes quite apparent at the time of death when the ...

I see many happy homes go through tough emotional times and in these times parents are under so much duress that they cannot see beyond the immediate financial or social needs of the family thus the emotional needs are swept aside. For children, this is particularly hard to understand. They don't understand mid life crises, they don't understand death, they don't understand job redundancies, they don't understand migration and its challenges, or most other causes of distress. All they understand is that their parents either don't have time to spend with them or the parents are not talking to each other or worse are fighting all the time and they assume that it is their fault. Even if the children don't feel it is their fault, it is so wrong to make the only place they can call home a living hell. Whether they are blaming themselves or not, the fact is that they are too weak and lack the knowledge and means to influence the situation in any way. It is up to the...