Creatively Aging

The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

Andrew Marvell had other matters in mind when he penned these lines but I thought of them this evening as I struggled to embrace a lonely and sick woman, perhaps a dying one, in her wheelchair. She sought the comfort of some human touch, a familiar face ,and friendly voice and in return I wrapped my arms around aluminum tubing. Sickness and death are surely a part of life but we have succeeded in making impersonal discomfort a part as well.