…aged by culture and history

”It’s hard work becoming knowledgeable about how we are being aged by culture and history” (Gullette 2004 pg. 7)

“We need a little historical revisionism” (pg. 8)

I like that…reading those lines together as if a script…”We need a little historical revisionism”…and not just historical but cultural. I am thinking a lot about aging right now, because it is slowing forming into a narrative piece that could become a performance piece, but not in a theatre. I’m rather partial to soirees.

Soirees were a thing at one time, Oxford Dictionary defines a soiree as a gathering, usually in a private house, where people gather for music or conversation. Merriam-Webster adds “a fancy evening party”…that sounds good to me. I will have a fancy evening party and share stories about the resistances we have created to counterbalance the narrative of decline, sometimes so ‘invisible’ that we do not know they are there:

“There is a way out [of being overwhelmed by the bleakness of the narrative of decline] if one recognises that decline is an ideology, learns more about its techniques, and invents resistances” (Gullette 2004 135)

Oh that is enticing. That decline is an ideology. Pffftttt to that…and so what do we do? As suggested by Gullette, we invent resistances. And isn’t that the job of the elder artist? We invent resistances in order to flourish in ways that make a difference in this world, in our case, through a performative lens.