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Global Perspectives on Aging
Embracing Age: How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well
Embracing Age: How Catholic Nuns Became Models of Aging Well examines a community of individuals whose aging trajectories contrast mainstream American experiences. In mainstream American society, aging is presented as a “problem,” a state to be avoided as long as possible, a state that threatens one’s ability to maintain independence, autonomy, control over one’s surroundings. Aging “well” (or avoiding aging) has become a 21st century American preoccupation. Embracing Age provides a window into the everyday lives of American Catholic nuns who experience longevity and remarkable health and well-being at the end of life. Catholic nuns aren’t only healthier in older age, they are healthier because they practice a culture of acceptance and grace around aging. Embracing Age demonstrates how aging in the convent becomes understood by the nuns to be a natural part of the life course, not one to be feared or avoided. Anna I. Corwin shows readers how Catholic nuns create a cultural community that provides a model for how to grow old, decline, and die that is both embedded in American culture and quite distinct from other American models.
202 pages, Paperback
Published August 13, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 11, 2024
So here's the question: Can you fail at being a teenager?
Maybe you don't make prom queen, quarterback, or dean's list. Maybe your grades couldn't punch through average. Maybe there was a death, or an illness, or bullying, or you acquired an addiction. Maybe college was removed from the horizon; a job lost, a home sold, a life of crime begun. Does this mean you failed at being thirteen, fourteen, fifteen? Or did thirteen, fourteen, fifteen happen anyway because this was a stage of life and not a test? This was a thing with hormones and maturation and sexualization; the introduction of shaving, showers, dating, driving and larger clothes with social implications. Where are the books by our pantheon of experts that tell us how to be seventeen correctly, as if there were a right way and a wrong way to be an age? We seem to know better than to tell children this sort of lie. How is it we don't know better than to tell it to the person reaching sixty-five?
Anna I. Corwin takes issue with the contention that an increase in productivity and a laser-focus on health-related activities will result in "successful" aging - primarily because it's aging and we actually have to deal with that. Studies have recently been conducted to discover why it is that Catholic nuns who have retired to convent care appear to experience greater positive physical and psychological health outcomes than their peers. Corwin, a linguistic anthropologist, bought a ticket and took a plane. She spent years with these retired nuns, ranging from seventy to ninety, and came away to write what has to be the best book I've come across on the subject of aging. It's astonishing. Sincerely.
Maybe it's precisely because she's a linguistic anthropologist - trained in language thoroughly enough to understand the way words create realities, and realities create beliefs, and beliefs create routines - that this material holds such resonance for me. Maybe it's because she has the wisdom to allow that we cannot fully achieve what these nuns have achieved as theirs is the result of a lifetime's adherence to the perspective of embracing - of taking what the world throws at them and working with it rather than against it. She writes about the psychic structure built by repeated prayer, repeated ritual, companionship in outlook, and the undeniable accomplishment of being able to accept help when the return of such a gift is increasingly unmanageable. She writes, too, about the damaging aspects of Elderspeak, the language our culture has a tendency to use with seniors; the dumbing down of communication housed in forced gaiety of tone; exaggerated, infantilizing conveyances that continually wound the soul - not to mention the brain's capacity to construct complex thought. And then, of course, there's the isolation...
In the United States and western Europe, older adults who need daily care spend much of their time alone, in an isolated environment in which they have little social interaction. Linguist Karen Grainger has found that even when older adults are communicatively engaged, their contributions are often ignored or even demeaned. This bleak social landscape, with few "confirmative and stimulating adult-to-adult encounters," is unfortunately common and has been found by researchers to negatively affect elderly individuals' cognitive function.
In a convent, according to Corwin, even in the hospice wing, elderly nuns are visited, engaged, challenged, and made provision for - perhaps even to routing a feed of the Mass they might miss due to infirmity. The simple, graceful act of a caretaking nun to request from a patient who cannot talk anymore...to request that this patient bless her, and to have that patient perform that motion, is the sort of respectful attitude I myself strive toward. I don't know that I've read about a more inclusive dynamic than the one the author presents, and that in itself is a joyous thing.
A joyous thing, in a book about growing old, in a book about facing death. Again, this was astonishing.
Maybe you don't make prom queen, quarterback, or dean's list. Maybe your grades couldn't punch through average. Maybe there was a death, or an illness, or bullying, or you acquired an addiction. Maybe college was removed from the horizon; a job lost, a home sold, a life of crime begun. Does this mean you failed at being thirteen, fourteen, fifteen? Or did thirteen, fourteen, fifteen happen anyway because this was a stage of life and not a test? This was a thing with hormones and maturation and sexualization; the introduction of shaving, showers, dating, driving and larger clothes with social implications. Where are the books by our pantheon of experts that tell us how to be seventeen correctly, as if there were a right way and a wrong way to be an age? We seem to know better than to tell children this sort of lie. How is it we don't know better than to tell it to the person reaching sixty-five?
Anna I. Corwin takes issue with the contention that an increase in productivity and a laser-focus on health-related activities will result in "successful" aging - primarily because it's aging and we actually have to deal with that. Studies have recently been conducted to discover why it is that Catholic nuns who have retired to convent care appear to experience greater positive physical and psychological health outcomes than their peers. Corwin, a linguistic anthropologist, bought a ticket and took a plane. She spent years with these retired nuns, ranging from seventy to ninety, and came away to write what has to be the best book I've come across on the subject of aging. It's astonishing. Sincerely.
Maybe it's precisely because she's a linguistic anthropologist - trained in language thoroughly enough to understand the way words create realities, and realities create beliefs, and beliefs create routines - that this material holds such resonance for me. Maybe it's because she has the wisdom to allow that we cannot fully achieve what these nuns have achieved as theirs is the result of a lifetime's adherence to the perspective of embracing - of taking what the world throws at them and working with it rather than against it. She writes about the psychic structure built by repeated prayer, repeated ritual, companionship in outlook, and the undeniable accomplishment of being able to accept help when the return of such a gift is increasingly unmanageable. She writes, too, about the damaging aspects of Elderspeak, the language our culture has a tendency to use with seniors; the dumbing down of communication housed in forced gaiety of tone; exaggerated, infantilizing conveyances that continually wound the soul - not to mention the brain's capacity to construct complex thought. And then, of course, there's the isolation...
In the United States and western Europe, older adults who need daily care spend much of their time alone, in an isolated environment in which they have little social interaction. Linguist Karen Grainger has found that even when older adults are communicatively engaged, their contributions are often ignored or even demeaned. This bleak social landscape, with few "confirmative and stimulating adult-to-adult encounters," is unfortunately common and has been found by researchers to negatively affect elderly individuals' cognitive function.
In a convent, according to Corwin, even in the hospice wing, elderly nuns are visited, engaged, challenged, and made provision for - perhaps even to routing a feed of the Mass they might miss due to infirmity. The simple, graceful act of a caretaking nun to request from a patient who cannot talk anymore...to request that this patient bless her, and to have that patient perform that motion, is the sort of respectful attitude I myself strive toward. I don't know that I've read about a more inclusive dynamic than the one the author presents, and that in itself is a joyous thing.
A joyous thing, in a book about growing old, in a book about facing death. Again, this was astonishing.
October 30, 2022
Enjoyed this hugely, and it gave me much to think about. The author is a linguistic and psychological anthropologist who spent years visiting a Midwestern Franciscan convent, where most of the nuns are now retired, to explore their aging process. The book clearly was a dissertation and is written like one, carefully situating her work in the pre-existing literature and so on, but it was fascinating. I had heard before that studies show that nuns ‘age well,’ but Corwin takes this beyond focusing on physical health and longevity. She suggests that the way the nuns relate to aging is very different than the broader North American idea of ‘successful aging’ that is premised on staving off the physical and mental effects of aging as long as possible, and maintaining independence. Instead, nuns practise an acceptance, including of dependency and decline, and recognize value in each member of the community. Through her research, Corwin looks at the practices, language, and values that contribute to this very different model. For example, habits of ‘kenosis’ or ‘emptying the self,’ built up over decades, lead to a greater feeling of well-being in old age. There is also a porous relationship between the rest of the convent and the infirmary, with retired and often quite ill nuns serving each other, and more physically healthy nuns gracefully incorporating their incapacitated sisters in the life of the convent, without using marginalizing ‘elderspeak’ in conversation with them. Fascinating and valuable.
May 2, 2022
Everyone (if they’re lucky) gets older. Not everyone grows older. In Embracing Age, Dr. Corwin considers how one community of Franciscan sisters (the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart Convent) grow old together. In this community, aging is not something be avoided (or denied using all manner of cosmetic means), but instead deepens their experience of life, of the divine, and of community. I admired the compassion and rigor of Dr. Corwin’s investigation, and I especially appreciated the portraits of Sister Irma and Sister Carline. The book made me wonder how much fuller lives we all might lead if we embraced age, rather than striving for perpetual youth.
July 27, 2023
I appreciated many of the values that are highlighted in the way that these nuns age gracefully: interdependence and serving Christ in one another, language and not talking down to the elderly, being over doing, making a place for one another regardless of one's "usefulness," how the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience cultivate detachment, kenosis, and especially the importance of surrender. What a gift for these sisters to end their lives in a community of love. In an age where euthanasia is becoming more culturally acceptable, these sisters are a model of human dignity.
I grew up after Vatican II so maybe it's unfair to critique how the author writes about the significance of the council for these nuns, but nevertheless it sounded theologically off. She acknowledges that the changing attitudes towards God weren't necessarily new (she references St. Augustine writing about the nearness of God centuries before), but somehow the nuns only encountered this idea after the Council? She writes about the nuns experiencing suffering before Vatican II as divine punishment and the practice of "offering it up." Maybe suffering was unnecessarily glorified in the past and we certainly don't need to seek out suffering to encounter it, but the act of uniting whatever pain we experience with Christ on the cross is one of the riches of our faith. She mentions the nuns experiencing God beyond gender (Julian of Norwich also wrote beautifully about the maternal love of God centuries before). However, by denigrating the significance of God's fatherhood, masculinity and fatherhood are reduced to something toxic and authoritarian instead of loving and tender (I think of St. Therese). When she writes about a nun giving away a grapefruit because of her vow of poverty and the material world being a hindrance to the spiritual, I could only think of the sacramental worldview that sees God's goodness imbued in everything, even in a grapefruit. Maybe I am just fortunate to live in the 21st century and I don't doubt that Vatican II brought positive changes to the nuns' spirituality, but it seemed like some nuance was lost.
I grew up after Vatican II so maybe it's unfair to critique how the author writes about the significance of the council for these nuns, but nevertheless it sounded theologically off. She acknowledges that the changing attitudes towards God weren't necessarily new (she references St. Augustine writing about the nearness of God centuries before), but somehow the nuns only encountered this idea after the Council? She writes about the nuns experiencing suffering before Vatican II as divine punishment and the practice of "offering it up." Maybe suffering was unnecessarily glorified in the past and we certainly don't need to seek out suffering to encounter it, but the act of uniting whatever pain we experience with Christ on the cross is one of the riches of our faith. She mentions the nuns experiencing God beyond gender (Julian of Norwich also wrote beautifully about the maternal love of God centuries before). However, by denigrating the significance of God's fatherhood, masculinity and fatherhood are reduced to something toxic and authoritarian instead of loving and tender (I think of St. Therese). When she writes about a nun giving away a grapefruit because of her vow of poverty and the material world being a hindrance to the spiritual, I could only think of the sacramental worldview that sees God's goodness imbued in everything, even in a grapefruit. Maybe I am just fortunate to live in the 21st century and I don't doubt that Vatican II brought positive changes to the nuns' spirituality, but it seemed like some nuance was lost.
April 1, 2022
I hoped this book would help me understand my own aging family, and help me plan life as I age. I remember the sisters of my all-girls Catholic high school all being so active and "together" in later life (it seemed the norm that sisters lived to 100), and if this book showed how I can embrace age, sign me up! But wow, it was so much more than that! In this book, I really found ways to embrace living. The pandemic has helped us re-evaluate what's important to us, and the lessons from the nuns in this book put an exclamation point on all of that.
And more than just age-related, this book helped to come to terms with some areas of my own faith. Raised as a "holiday" Catholic, I've resisted embracing the religion for the various ugly spots and the dark "guilt-ridden" reputation. But how these sisters approach their own faith, in some of the most difficult times, and as the Church changes, was inspiring and helped me put words to my own faith.
I've recommended this book to friends with aging parents and friends with interests in faith. It can be taken as either or both.
And more than just age-related, this book helped to come to terms with some areas of my own faith. Raised as a "holiday" Catholic, I've resisted embracing the religion for the various ugly spots and the dark "guilt-ridden" reputation. But how these sisters approach their own faith, in some of the most difficult times, and as the Church changes, was inspiring and helped me put words to my own faith.
I've recommended this book to friends with aging parents and friends with interests in faith. It can be taken as either or both.
November 26, 2024
I loved this book! It's a fascinating exploration of life within a convent, delving into both the daily routines and the broader themes of aging. I assumed I wouldn't enjoy this book as much as I did, thinking that it might focus primarily on the concept of aging itself. I was pleasantly surprised, and the author effectively intertwines the experiences of the nuns with insights into aging, the theological frameworks guiding their lives, and elements of Catholic history.
I also need to add that the way Corwin writes is very engaging and she pays attention to the details that actually matter. She balances informative sections with narratives from her own experiences in the convent. This lets readers see how the nuns implement various concepts in their lives, making it easier to grasp them.
Overall, I felt like I learnt a lot from this book, and I was also so engaged that I managed to read it in two days. 5/5.
I also need to add that the way Corwin writes is very engaging and she pays attention to the details that actually matter. She balances informative sections with narratives from her own experiences in the convent. This lets readers see how the nuns implement various concepts in their lives, making it easier to grasp them.
Overall, I felt like I learnt a lot from this book, and I was also so engaged that I managed to read it in two days. 5/5.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews