ANDY BACHMAN ON ACHING KNEES AND ROTH’S EXIT GHOST

Ever thoughtful, here’s an excerpt from a post called, Not Me But Who’s Next on  Rabbi Andy’s blog.

I hurt my knees this summer, which meant that the ability to run in
Israel was reduced to nothing and it’s taken most of August and
September to climb back to a point where a few times a week I can pull
off a loop or two in the park.

At 44, I’m feeling it.

Mortality all around.

In
Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost, he pursues aging and mortality, yet again,
better than anyone I know; and this time around, I coupled his
meditations with a reading of Dr. Sherwin Nuland’s the Art of Aging.

Taken
together, they make an enlightening diad about the inevitable breakdown
of our physicality and how the literary and philosophical/existential
can provide a bulwark against despair and decay.