The reaction of some of us to our topic last week was to state it "Old Age Denounced". There is much to support this position in Mary Baker Eddy's writings and in the Bible. However, we chose the more neutral term which left us free to find both the good and bad aspects of the concept, in preparation for locating he divine idea thus portrayed to material sense. We kept in mind Mrs. Eddy's comment on the sensuous universe: "I love your promise;...mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind" (see Miscellaneous Writings, p. 87: 3-13 for the full quotation).

A recent conference of the Gay elders' organization SAGE entitled "Out of the Closet — Into the Future: Midlife and Aging in Gay America" brought this statement from a participant: "Aging is a great gift and we should not fear it or denigrate it." Some of the conference's findings were discussed along with those in an article entitled "Elephant Graveyards" by Particia Nell Warren — of "Front Runner" fame. Both dug deeply into the maltreatment Gay and Lesbian seniors receive not only from society at large but from our own community.

A member then quoted from a recent review of Joseph Heller's last book "Portrait of an Artist, As an Old Man". The reviewer was bewildered by all the regret, impotence, rage, pomposity and envy revealed by the author as he unsuccessfully struggles to regain his youthful vigor and glory by writing another smash novel. Our member thought it extraordinarily brave to put all this on paper for everyone to see. It certainly de-romanticizes old age and shows its depressive, dark side.

Well, that was the last straw for another member who felt by now we were literally bathing in the old age belief and failing to get any Science working on the subject. That's one of the dangers in our group's methods, as we try to tease out the divine idea while charming a cobra; but usually we find someone ready to alert us when we've bent too close to the snake.

Thus warned, we strove to put our material into a mythological framework whence the divine idea could leap out. It did; here's how.

1) First, a member told us of James Hillman's work in "Puer Papers" with the gods Saturn and Kronos which govern old age. Any concept — including a human — will find its original energy, strength and expansiveness becoming repetitive, perfunctory, rigid and brittle over time. This applies to any concept, including Christianity and Christian Science, when held in the grasp of matter. The old concept has to break up to make way for a newer, fresher take on reality. The solution of course is to live not as a concept but as infinite idea.

2) A member said that if an alcoholic came into his office, a practitioner should avoid condemnations and pep talks and go straight to divine Spirit, which is the higher octave of the boozy depiction. The practitioner should then live only the Spirit and drop the depiction until the patient is healed. Extrapolating from this to someone suffering, or enjoying, old age, he should find the counter-fact — say eternal Life or infinite Love — and live that, thereby bringing out a better concept.

3) A new member talked of his work with the elderly depressed. In one of his groups, many older people were practically catatonic from lack of care and activity, as compounded by drug misapplications. They were encouraged to interact with each other and shortly started to talk and move about. Soon they were volunteering to serve at dinner and help each other with tasks, Depression lifted as love replaced worry and bitterness. One 89 year old gentleman organized exercise classes. Our chairperson for the evening exclaimed, "Think what Christian Science could have brought to this scene." Another pointed out that since Christian Science is about the laws of God, he could see it was already fully operative.

4) Another member felt none of us should pontificate about age since few — not even Mrs. Eddy in his view — had demonstrated much in this area. Others pointed to his own demonstration as quite remarkable and felt in any case that we were not pontificating by trying to get clear the Science of the subject. So what if we had not demonstrated everything — Science is always in advance of its demonstration; we need good "theory" before you even know which way to go. One member said that Science is not theory but fact, ever confronting us with reality, always saying, "OK, deal with this: the eternality and infinity of being."

5) Another member felt that students of Christian Science should feel no restraint in healing the physical evidences of age. These are forms of disease. Proper color, shape, function, sensation and so on are God's means of expressing His presence and power. Do we want to engage in the idolatry of setting up a depreciating mortal to worship in place of Deity?

6) Another member told of his work with his mother on memory. She fretted over the loss thereof. He saw and conveyed to her the idea that since Mind is ever-present we don't have to remember, in the sense of accessing or dredging up some past incident. It's all instantly available now.

7) This got us into memories, a major contributor to old age. A member told of hearing a couple of activists talking about the glories of the past while mentioning how bad things are today (their area of concern is prisons). He thought how silly to see themselves as burned out now, but wasn't the past grand! He could see much the same attitude in himself. Wasn't that a sad love affair; wasn't that an awful childhood? He thought of Mrs. Eddy's advice on memories in her autobiography: "Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth....The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 21:25-1). He could see that the energy locked up in these old memories — good or bad — needed to be released and recycled for current use. It was no good simply forgetting; such action carries the energy to inaccessible depths. The memories as they come up need the cutting sword of Science to split them open and give up their joy. For instance, Wasn't, Isn't Love wonderful as I, us? Live that and blow the sides out of the pitiful hurt nursed along all those years about the love affair. Bad parenting? How about one Cause and effect, being I, us? Live it.

8) Two members talked during the week about an idea from Vedanta which they brought to the meeting to help us get a clearer notion of what mortal mind is. In Vedanta the small self is a cramped, partial view of the greater Self. They felt that mortal mind is really a constricted use of the divine Mind. Mortal mind's vista is Heaven, as seen through a glass darkly. As we reach out beyond its usual range we increasingly avail the divine view and the arc of our lives increases in radius as we approach the infinite.

Some felt this idea was confirmed by quantum physics. When an infinite wave becomes a finite particle — analogous to mortal mind — it starts to deteriorate. Our two Transcendental Meditators found the same idea in their practice. They get out of their little minds into infinity, returning refreshed and with new insights.

In conclusion we felt all of these cross cultural ideas are valuable in the practice of Christian Science and in getting a true perspective on what's called aging.

We want to look at Success next week, particularly from the standpoint of what we each call success for ourselves.