An unfamiliar later life, and a change of mind

The notes take up Parker Palmer’s On the Brink of Everything, a book they also name, in their wording, as seven prisms on aging. The writer had not yet thought seriously about later life, or about the stance one might take toward it.

For someone not yet old, they write, old age is unfamiliar. Each step toward what is unfamiliar, for most people, can feel like not being able to see. The book, they say, changed a simpler thought — that aging is only the natural process of growing old — and made them ask what life, and what attitude, to take when facing it.

Energy in public, and a severe depression

Parker Palmer, they write, is seen by others as a social activist and educator, a person who gave off a great deal of energy. In later life, though, he suffered a severe depression.

The book, as they read it, is not a fight against the natural flow of time. It is about what can be gained when a person cooperates with aging, rather than standing against it.

A change of frame, and a door still inward

Through essays and poems, they write, Palmer asks for a change of frame: not decline and powerlessness, but new discovery and participation. Later life, in that telling, is not only a losing of force.

They also keep a harder thought. If, as one steps toward later life, a person feels their own life has no meaning, then other people’s comfort and embrace will not mean much either. Do not only hide inward, they write; open one more door, from inside to inside. The question of whether a life has meaning is heavy, and a little frightening, but it was less so, they found, than they had expected. The Korean notes themselves, written further on, sit on CampusDown.

Sources

1. Student notes on Parker Palmer’s On the Brink of Everything, read as a stance toward aging and a change of frame.

Last updated 15 November 2026