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This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity
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This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity Paperback - 2010

by Susan Moon


From the publisher

Inspiring lessons on growing older with grace and laughter, from a Zen teacher and writer who is "like a Buddhist Anne Lamott" (New York Journal of Books) Being a woman over sixty can sometimes be confusing, sometimes poignant, and sometimes hilarious. In this intimate and funny collection of essays, Zen Buddhist and writer Susan Moon maintains her sense of humor as she provides thoughtful insights on getting older. In This Is Getting Old, Moon touches on both the ups and downs of aging: Her bones are weakening, but she still feels her inner tomboy. She finds herself both an orphan and a matriarch following the death of her mother. She admits to sometimes regretting pieces of her past and to being afraid of loneliness. These musings, written with Moon's signature wit and grace, are a touching exploration and celebration of life, age, and our "senior moments"--plus a powerful reminder to be in the here and now.

Details

  • Title This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity
  • Author Susan Moon
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Fourth Printing
  • Pages 208
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Shambhala, Boston, MA, U.S.A.
  • Date 2010-06-08
  • ISBN 9781590307762 / 1590307763
  • Weight 0.59 lbs (0.27 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.7 x 6.62 x 0.52 in (22.10 x 16.81 x 1.32 cm)
  • Themes
    • Generational Orientation: Elderly/Aged
    • Religious Orientation: Buddhist
  • Library of Congress subjects Older people - Religious life, Aging - Religious aspects - Zen Buddhism
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2010003821
  • Dewey Decimal Code 294.344

Media reviews

<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"> </o:smarttagtype> <o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"> </o:smarttagtype> “Moon is like a Buddhist Anne Lamott--confronting her life bravely and unapologetically. Reading as a man in his mid-sixties, [I] welcomed her honest ambivalence about aging. Her style is conversational yet often beautifully vivid and clear.”— <st1:state w:st="on"> <st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place> </st1:state> Journal of Books


 “A funny, honest, and deeply personal book.  This collection of confessional essays makes for absorbing reading.”—Mandala magazine<o:p> </o:p>

“Refreshingly honest and enlightening. In this sterling collection of essays, Susan Moon looks at the rewards, blessings, drawbacks, and challenges of aging.  We are so grateful that Moon has written this insightful book in which she passes on what all this has meant to her.”—Spirituality & Practice

“Gentle essays . . . long on dignity.  Moon uses detail vividly in her determination to make peace with the many failures of brain and body (from forgetting her Social Security number to wondering if she’ll ever have sex again). Her best writing occurs when memory, emotion, and spirit coalesce as she recovers parts of herself left behind in childhood or comes to terms with solitude.”—Publishers Weekly

“Moon shares stories of her journey, providing on each page the deep intimacy experienced with an old friend over a cup of tea, the kind that satisfies and leaves you wanting more.  She plunges below the surface to explore grief, depression, loneliness, and peace, without losing her characteristic wry humor and infectious delight.  And in the process, her stories become our stories.”—Turning Wheel (The Buddhist Peace Fellowship) 



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“[Moon] does not shy away from any aspect of aging, from sore knees to foggy memory, but also maintains a sassy sense of humor.  Perhaps if more people were as open about aging as Moon is, we shouldn’t all be so uncomfortable with the idea. This is a great read for anyone pondering the future.”—<st1:place w:st="on"> <st1:city w:st="on"> Sacramento </st1:city> </st1:place> Book Review

“This is a book about aging, but it’s not at all depressing.  Susan Moon is a very funny lady.  Moon shows us aging in a breathtakingly honest way.  I found that I liked her more and more as the book unfolded.  This Is Getting Old is beautiful, warm . . . existential.”—Wildmind.org

“Moon’s stories are wonderful companions and guides as I go about my ordinary life.”—Maxine Hong Kingston

“Aging is the biggest issue facing me and everyone I know. This book is poignant, funny, and spot-on, and I am tremendously grateful to Susan Moon for writing it. I love this book!”—Sylvia Boorstein, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job

"This Is Getting Old is a sweet, mellow, funny, wise, sad, and deeply affecting book. Susan Moon's essays are so disarmingly honest, so personal and plain, that they will make you forget what an astonishingly rare and profound achievement this is."—Norman Fischer, author of Sailing Home and Taking Our Places

Citations

  • Publishers Weekly, 04/12/2010, Page 45

About the author

Susan Moon is a writer and longtime Zen Buddhist who teaches popular writing workshops, mostly in California. She is the former editor of Turning Wheel: The Journal of Socially Engaged Buddhism. She lives in Berkeley, California.
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Shambhala, 2010, 2010. Soft cover. Near Fine. Octavo, softcover, near fine in white pictorial wraps. 176 pp. Giftable. An intimate and funny collection of essays on the sometimes confusing, sometimes poignant, sometimes hilarious condition of being a woman over sixty. Author keeps her sense of humor as she keeps her reader fully engaged.
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This Is Getting Old : Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity

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This Is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity

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