Silver Journey

Author: Leonard Manheim
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: I don’t know whether I love the unforgettable elderly characters in Manheim’s writing more, or the wisdom so devoutly attributed to them. This is philosophy—the best kind, profound and sharp, practical, reasonable, especially like a kind friend. It reads like a novel, a charming reflection on philosophy between a philosophy teacher and an elderly student. This book might become an adult version of Sophie’s World, a philosophical novel that explores philosophy through dialogues with children. Philosophy can argue and explain, but it can also narrate and depict. The author of this book chooses story and emotion. In fact, this book embodies an ancient tradition: facing life through storytelling. Thus, we get to listen to the author’s dialogue with the elderly and witness the interaction between philosophical texts and the elderly’s hearts. Teaching philosophy to the elderly who have retired from the battlefield of life should be a path toward wisdom. Leonard Manheim believes so. Therefore, he started his journey from the senior activity center in his community. It turned out that his judgment was correct, but the story unfolded in an unexpected way. The year he entered the senior activity center, he was thirty-two, facing real-life struggles and confusion about meaning. It was the poetry of British poet Tennyson’s Ulysses that inspired him to directly approach the elderly who had already faced the end of life. Along this journey, he himself is now in his fifties. The stories of these elderly people—such as his Danish friend Ogi, who enjoys life, the once-resilient but later ravaged by dementia Cibdadi, the joking and cigar-loving Uncle Joe, and others—become like a mirror, reflecting light that gradually becomes clear. Over twenty years of vivid "Socratic-style" dialogues with the elderly have led Manheim into one after another of tragic and joyful, sometimes humorous, sometimes speechless stories and conversations. Through real-life stories, he and the elderly explore together—what is romantic love? How do people understand the past? Does life’s purpose become clearer in old age? How do we find common meaning across races, religions, and generations? What is the essence of humanity? How does one live a "fulfilling" life? Through gripping real-life stories, Manheim allows ideas and life to resonate in the book, guiding us to get close to the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle, Kierkegaard, and John Stuart Mill. He shows us that these philosophers can indeed accompany us through life, leading us toward the inevitable "end of time."