Middle age

[kate_schaefer]

Middle age is tough. Okay, all of life is tough, but middle age is the part I'm in now. There are lots of great things about being middle-aged: I know who I am, I know what I want, I know how to get much of what I want, and for the most part I know how to cope with the consequences of not getting the rest. I've been learning my whole life how to cope with some of my friends and family having serious illnesses and dying; it's a set of lessons everyone gets, along with the more personal lessons leading to facing mortality one's own self. It's never easy or pleasant.

Last fall and winter, I was part of a group of friends keeping an old friend company as she died of cancer. This fall, I'll be part of mostly that same group of friends running errands and helping with childcare as another old friend hopes to survive cancer (http://www.anitarowland.com/). It's tricky writing about this; cancer survival is much more a matter of luck than of work. The work Anita will do -– enduring chemotherapy, exercising, eating, and sleeping appropriately to support the chemo – will go as far as it can to help the luck. The work we'll do will go as far as it can to support the work Anita does, and to try to keep her family as cheerful and rested as possible. Still, a lot of it comes down to luck.

So here's wishing for a lot of good luck, in every shape it can take.

Comments

[jerrykaufman.livejournal.com]

I got quite a shock when Eileen G. gave me the news over the Worldcon weekend. We'll do what we can. Helping with Anita's step-grandson will be the biggest job, I think, but that's one I don't feel I can do.

[tamiam.livejournal.com]

Middle age for me seems to be re-thinking who I am because I thought I knew who I was, but I wasn't, and re-thinking what I want, and how to be self-sufficient about it. I know, though how to cope with a multitude of intensily stressful life-changing events. This time around I'm getting therapy to help me not be overwhelmed with it all. It's good to have friends like you in the midst of all of this. I'm wishing for luck also, for all of us, and especially Anita.

[weemallard.livejournal.com]

I am really sorry to hear this.