I Will NOT Go Gentle Into the Night
The Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, (1914-53) wrote a poem to his dying father that began:
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
At 67, I am not dying. Yet. However, my age group is often treated as if we were at the start of a prolonged death march.
And I will rage and rage against the dying of my light and that of my generation.
We gave light and warmth to a world darkened by war and oppression.
Our generation was the offspring of The Greatest Generation, those who fought in WWII. My English father and American mother met during the war, and I was a war baby born in England to the sound of bombs, and spent my childhood in grim post war England.
Meanwhile, the 50s generation in the U.S. were smug, conservative in their victory, swathed in security and newfound luxuries, and determined to lead lives centered on doing the right thing. A woman’s place was in the home and a man’s in the workplace. Frank Sinatra sang, “Love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage.” Then Elvis shocked the nation with his, “I’m all shook up!” until the bosses found a way – military service, movies – to calm him down, and eventually turn him into an overweight, drug addicted Las Vegas entertainer.
We grew up to become the generation of the 60s. We changed popular to have meaning – Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Peter, Paul and Mary. Women lifted their hemlines from mid-calf almost to their thighs, men were released from hats and formal wear, changed customs and attitudes relaxed – men and women could actually sleep or live together openly, and we protested when we disagreed with politics and national policy (Vietnam). Women aspired to and found work in former male only professions.
We overcame a stuffy Establishment to start the modern world, the one inherited by the current generation.
Then we stopped raging and protesting, and most of us settled into respectability, using our creativity and energies to create a better world for our kids. Women carved careers for themselves in a male dominated world so that nowadays, female executives are as much a part of the corporate world as their male counterparts.
We never thought we’d reach an age when the younger generation would start to shove us aside like old relics. We never dreamed the day might come when formerly successful professionals would be out on a limb, scrabbling for work – any work – in mid-life. Or that many of us would be no longer employable despite our qualifications and experience, or broke because of lost jobs, or family homes foreclosed or, except for some notable exceptions, shunted aside. We never thought we’d become victims of another depression caused by the greedy generation that followed ours.
Perhaps some of you can accept this and go gentle into the night of your life.
Or the alternative:
Rage, rage against the dying of our light for as long as we can.
I, for one, prefer the latter choice. What about you?
We raged when we were young and got things done. We still have our voices and we can rage again.
One voice added to another. Mine added to yours added to someone else’s and so on can build up to a lot of middle age voices clamoring to be heard.
Just imagine if a large number of us protested, for example, age discrimination in the workplace.
The same way we used to.
For one thing, it would shock the younger generation. That we still have it in us. That we’re not going out without a fight. That we’re capable of moving again in tandem, but this time against the entitled younger generation that has not learned from history that it repeats itself over and over again.
What awaits them in 30-40 years?
I’m not ready to be shoved aside. Nor are many of my generation or even older.
Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa at 67 after 28 years’ imprisonment.
John McCain was a presidential candidate (a grueling ordeal) at 72.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi may be making a long overdue return after years of house arrest.
The world is rife with people over sixty who have more than enough energy to go around.
To mention a few: Hilary Clinton, Diane Sawyer, Martha Stewart, Nancy Pelosi, Arianna Huffington, Isabel Allende, Doris Lessing, Steven King, Michael Bloomberg, Donald Trump, Al Gore, Bill Clinton, and Richard Branson
How about the entertainment world? Jeff Bridges, Harrison Ford, Al Pacino, Anthony Hopkins, Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese, Cher, Mick Jagger, and Paul McCartney.
I could add a lot more names and so can you, to that list.
Join my voice that you will not go gentle into the night.
Instead, you will rage, rage against the dying of your light.
Photograph courtesy of Veronica Valades
Tags: "I'm mad as hell!", Ageism, Do not go gentle into that good night, Dylan Thomas, economic sinkhole, Fall from grace, former professionals, high-powered career, Join our voices in protest, new start, opportunity, Reinventing yourself, The Establishment
This entry was posted on Friday, January 14th, 2011 at 12:13 am and is filed under Challenges & opportunities after professional job loss, Midlife professional challenges. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
23 Responses to “I Will NOT Go Gentle Into the Night”
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Penny, don’t fight it! We are the age we are. There’s nothing wrong with being any particular age. Just live in the now like there’s no tomorrow. Life is GREAT!
Best,
Peter Fowler, age 87
Retired Gringo living in Rosarito Beach, B.C., Mexico
619-407-7089
661-612-3770
Peter,
I’m not saying to rage against the age we are. What I’m saying is to rage against “ageism” – that form of discrimination that is shunting my generation aside in the workplace, and against attitudes that make some mid life people feel hopeless and helpless, especially after job loss. People in my generation and over still have a lot to offer (as evinced by you at your age), and there’s so much we can accomplish if we set our minds to it. We just have to change the idea/attitude that people in mid life are past their prime. I, for one, have a lot of plans for the rest of my life. You are right. Life is GREAT – as long as you don’t give up on it.
Dylan Thomas just happens to be one of my favorite poets. Maybe it was because my Mother was Welsh and my Great Aunt was friends with him. Or maybe just because he is a great poet.
My Mother was a war bride and my Father American, but I grew up in the States. I feel much younger than I am although I proudly admit to my age. I surprise the younger folks at how up to date I am with technology and popular culture and I still have a social conscious.
So I guess I am still raging. Thanks for the great article.
Diane
Diane,
Sounds like we have a lot in common. I’m glad to hear from someone who also appreciates Dylan Thomas, and also about your Welsh side. He lived such a short life but left such a wealth of poetry that I hope younger generations will consider him as one of the great poets of the 20th century.
It’s good to hear that you are another of our generation who keeps up with technology and popular culture – as many of us do – and still have the ability to rage.
So many of us share such sentiments, especially women! I’m so glad to see you forging ahead! My best wishes got to you for tremendous success.
Rage and old age need not be put in the same pot. If you’ve ever lived with an aged raging mother-in-law you’d know what I mean. If you are a champion of rage in itself, this is what I’ve fought against most of my life – the warrior class. It’s the raging maniacs of any era that get all the young folks killed off. If you mean one should get randy when push around, I would say deal with the problem firmly, but rage leads to no solution. I understand the voice of the 60s when we all raged against the Vietnam War. That was something to rage about. If you want to get the rich to return some of their recent thieving, that’s something else again. Might I suggest instead of rage, just put them out of business or steal it back. Swinging you arms wildly and spiting venom in anyone’s eye that gets near you will just get you locked up. Rage is a term to describe that which is out of control and should be restrained. I think you demand social justice in a world where each of us is getting smaller by the minute. Globalization means you are now on the same level as the peasant in China. If you want to be on a higher plane you will have to climb up to. You’re not going to be allowed to pull it down to you no matter how mad you get.
I just finished a semester of an on going course “Our Stories, Our Lives,” at San Diego City College’s continuing Education program. 95 year old Al was an inspiration. 93 year old Virginia writes and teaches. 85 year old Norma is publishing her 14th book. And there were other students my age, 85, as well as younger ones busily writing their stories and living very full lives.
Hi, Pennie,
I get it. The rage isn’t against our age; it’s against those who think we can no longer be productive. Just because our skin is sagging doesn’t mean our minds are.
But we were no different in our attitude when we were younger than the younger generation is now. “What goes around, comes around,” my mother’s generation to used to say. It’s taken me this long to agree with them.
If we were to take metaphorical arms against a sea of troubles, we’d probably be teaching the X and Y generations a thing or two since they’ve had it much too easy–until this most recent downturn.
For me, it’s looking like I should thank the universe for this tide turning. I’m heading into a different career–one I’ll enjoy much more than fighting legal battles for others.
See you soon.
Laurie
Laurie, Harry, John, Zoe,
Thanks for your insightful comments. I’ve had some very interesting and different reactions to this post – from positive to negative, and even one trying to cheer me up – not get depressed about this situation.
John: Some agree that we should “rage” against ageism and others feel, like you, that it is either too strong a word or sentiment to use in this context.
I agree with Laurie that today’s younger generation’s attitude is similar to ours when we were their age. However, there is a major difference: when we were young, for better or worse, the older generation was still in the driver’s seat. I like the fact that you are finding an array of new opportunities and a new career at this time in your life.
Another person commented on FB that we should make a combined effort (those who are interested) to show the younger generation how they can benefit from the wisdom and experience of our generation.
Harry: I have also heard from other people about older people’s achievements and the way many are not allowing themselves to sink gracefully into old age similar to you and the people in your group.
Zoe: Yes, for some reason, I find that women are more likely to share these sentiments though a couple of men do as well.
Our generation has a lot of living to do – no, we will not go gently into the night. We have fostered change and progress throughout our lives and we won´t stop now, no matter the obstacles we encounter. Here in San Miguel de Allende I´m surrounded by people 20 and 30 years older than I who, despite being slightly frail, are active, engaged, and committed to living their remaining years to the fullest – a great generation showing us the way. Don´t give up or give in, just give yourself, completely, to living the life we have – “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” – Admiral Farragut. Yes, I too am surprised that I find in a military man´s expression the sentiment that best summarizes my attitude. The fact that we need to take control of our lives, as difficult as that seems and is. If not us, who? If not now, when? Now, we just to find the answer to how?
Greg, I just love that admiral’s quote. It summarizes so well what I’m trying to communicate. We don’t have the time to waste with torpedoes, but have to run full tilt for as long and hard as we can. Yes, we need to take control of our lives and not give up or give in to adversity or ageism or anyone telling us we’re too old to accomplish what we set out to do.
Hi Penelope,
Glad to read that you’re back in the posting saddle. Rage if you like. It’s our choice to do what we need to do to feel alive. R-Age. Seems appropriate that age is within rage.
Do love that poem.
It’s all about obedience. Oh, now that you’re a certain age — go sit in your rocker and make pharm companies rich taking drugs for illnesses you probably do not have that only give you side effects they give you more drugs to eliminate. Or head for the nursing home.
We need to INTEGRATE folks of all ages. The schools make no sense age-segregating the young when the “seasoned” folks have much wisdom to share. You’d probably see less of this violence.
Stand up and be counted!
Fun, rebellious post. Thx, G.
Giulietta, R-Age. That’s a good way of putting it.
We can also rage against the pharm companies for taking advantage of fearful middle age. However, many of my generation are also to blame. I’ve had the occasional desire to slow down and lie back and take it easy instead of using all my energy to accomplish what I didn’t when I was younger, and make the next 10 years some of the most productive of my life.
I love the Dylan Thomas quotation — although not only in its application to “old age” but life in general.
I am proud of you. Of your rage and your high spirit in all the good and hard times. You always see the good things and the opportunity to make the best out of any given situation. I admire your strength and perseverance in achieving what you believe. Open our eyes (we the younger generation) to keep on having the energy and strength to reach our goals. As you told me the other day: -”Let’s learn from what we were and not forget what we were capable of, as we are still capable of the same!”- There is still a long and great road ahead. And you are not one to go gentle into the night!!!
Christopher,
Thanks for your wonderful comment. I can see that you “got” my message and understood what I meant by rage: to keep on having the energy and strength to reach our goals.
You go girl. You remind me of someone close to me I lost last year with your feisty spirit!
Janine, Glad I remind you of someone close to you and sad to hear you lost her. You also seem to have a feisty spirit so that makes two of us.
Although I loved your previous post, I love this one even more. I can identify with your entire journey. You are an inspiration. I rage at times, eventually see some things happen, relax, things calm down … too much, then I have to hope and pray I have the energy to rage again. Life’s been a roller coaster for the past several years. I am thinking at some point, though, I’ll carve my niche deep enough to be able to settle in for a while … it could happen.
Sherry, It seems like we can relate in a lot of ways such as life being a roller coaster over the past few years and also, in our desire to carve our niche deep enough. You have more time to achieve that than I do, and I’m sure that you will fulfill that desire. And if I find more readers like you who can relate to my message and then to my book, I can as well. It’s not a matter of “it could happen” but a matter of making it happen for us.
I agree with you Penelope and so does my Mum. At 85 she if fighting the preconceptions of being old. She plays golf twice a week and moans that her companions are falling apart ( bodily) and often let her down. She drives like a maniac, not to be recommended as it induces heart attacks in her passengers. She fights any notion that she is old or should slow down. We purchased a relaxer chair for her and she loves it. She can now have a snooze without lying down. She has so much to offer. It is wrong that people are put out to pasture based on a number, their age. Many older people have so much more to offer than some less than half their age. Look to the individual not the number on the C.V.
Mary,
Your mom sounds wonderful and quite a character. It’s people like her who make us realize that there’s still plenty of life and living after 60 and even after 80.
You know, Pennie, in reading this post again, I found it really valuable to hear the way you describe the world you grew up in. I guess that’s why they talk about growing up in such different generations. In the past, it seems that there was a lot more outspokenness for freedom and against inequalities. There isn’t the same level of that these days. Somehow, we almost seem too comfortable. I really appreciate your call to action because I think we all need more energy and a reason to come together!