| |
|
We can feel more alive at any age By Irene Reiss
|
|
 |
Part 1 /
In 1947, when I began my study of Aesthetic Realism, I was so fortunate to learn that the only way we can feel really alive at any age is to do all we can to know and like the world.
Aesthetic Realism is the education founded in 1941 by the philosopher and historian Eli Siegel. He explained that the deepest desire of every person is to like the world. And he also explained what interferes -- contempt: "a false importance or glory from the lessening of things not oneself."
I have learned contempt can be ordinary: a woman not listening when her husband speaks, or making fun of how another person dresses; and on a larger scale, Siegel taught, contempt is the cause of cruelty and war. Aesthetic Realism teaches that loneliness and boredom -- the feeling "I've seen it all" -- so common among older people and young people, and the false importance from feeling that nothing is worth learning or remembering, are actually contempt. Contempt is the greatest life-sapper, making people of any age feel old and worn out.
In his kind essay, "Declaration about Old Age," Eli Siegel writes, "The desire of a person of 80 to like himself and the world is as keen as it was when that person was eight, or 18, or 28." He continues:
Reality is always new; and the greatest misfortune of any person, whoever he may be or however old he may be, is not to see reality as tremendously new, subtly surprising, and dazzlingly novel. It is easy to be bored at any age; and being bored is one of the subtler forms of conceit.
Aesthetic Realism teaches, too, that wanting to see beauty in the world, new meaning in a book, a tree, a kitten, a chair, even a person who bumps into us on the street, is necessary if we are to fight our drive for contempt, which often shows itself as weariness, bitterness, and resignation. Learning about this crucial fight between contempt and respect has enabled me at 82 to have a zest for life far more than I had at the age of 32. My husband, Dan, and I are so fortunate to continue learning in Aesthetic Realism classes and seminars about ourselves, all people, literature, music, economics, current events.
As people get older, there are usually concerns about health: eyesight is not as good as once, often we don't hear as well, and people sometimes use their difficulties and worries to go "into themselves" and give up on the world. People need to know that every moment we make a choice, either to know and see meaning in things or to make less of them. I have seen that the difference between these choices is the difference between more life or less life.
The reason world can honestly be liked is that it has an aesthetic structure -- the oneness of opposites. Stated Eli Siegel, "The world, art, and self explain each other: each is the aesthetic oneness of opposites."
An older person can be tormented by the opposites of rigidity and flexibility, about rest and motion. Aesthetic Realism so kindly shows we can learn from everything about these opposites in ourselves -- for instance, how a tree with its rigid trunk has flexible, leafy branches that yield to the wind. As we get older and can't move as easily or swiftly as we once did, can our thoughts still be in lively motion, wanting to know? Can we see new meaning in things and people that can make us proud? And can we be both assertive and yielding at once, like a tree? Yes!
I am so grateful that because of our education, every day my husband and I can encourage each other to like the way we think and talk about the world, including some of our difficulties.
For instance, if stormy weather keeps us confined at home, when once it did not, instead of feeling as people commonly do -- that it's all downhill from now on -- and contemptuously seeing the world as an enemy, we can spend our time reading and discussing what is going on in the world and have conversations which encourage our understanding and care for people.
....... Continued in the November issue of Idaho Senior News. Click here.
Irene Reiss, an Aesthetic Realism consultant, wife and mother, lives in New York City. Some papers she has given in public seminars at the Aesthetic Realism Foundation are, "Possession vs. Perception in the Family," "How Can We Look Good in Our Own Eyes?" "The Fight in Women Between Energy and Weariness," "Honest Criticism -- Are Women Looking for It?"
Aesthetic Realism Foundation
|
141 Greene Street
New York NY 10012
212-777-4490
|
|
| |
| |
In his kind essay, "Declaration about Old Age," Eli Siegel writes, "The desire of a person of 80 to like himself and the world is as keen as it was when that person was eight, or 18, or 28." -- Irene Reiss
|
| |
A note on Aesthetic Realism and on classes
|
|
| |
Aesthetic Realism was founded by Eli Siegel, a poet of "the very first rank" (William Carlos Williams) and a critic whose "penetration [is] both original and extraordinary" (N.Y. Times Book Review).
All Aesthetic Realism classes are based on the inclusive way of seeing aesthetics that is the foundation of Aesthetic Realism.
The Aesthetic Realism Explanation of Poetry is taught by Ellen Reiss, Class Chairman of Aesthetic Realism. "Poetry," Eli Siegel explained, "is the oneness of the permanent opposites in reality as seen by an individual."
The Aesthetic Realism Teaching Method workshop for educators explains the aesthetic structure in each subject, from spelling to algebra, to show its beauty and relate it to students' lives. It is taught by distinuished New York City teachers, including Rosemary Plumstead, Patricia Martone, Lois Mason.
Aesthetic Realism and Anthropology, taught by Dr. Arnold Perey, discusses the Aesthetic Realism explanation of self to oppose racism and study what people have in common East and West, in the Arctic & the southern tip of Africa.
The Aesthetic Realism music classes, taught by Aesthetic Realism faculty members Barbara Allen, Anne Fielding, & Edward Green, and mezzo-soprano Carrie Wilson (Singing), are based on this principle of Aesthetic Realism: "All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."
Aesthetic Realism classes in art include The Visual Arts and the Opposites , a museum/gallery course taught by Marcia Rackow; The Art of Drawing: Surface & Depth, taught by Chaim Koppelman; and Critical Inquiry: A Workshop in the Visual Art s, in which works in process are looked at, taught by painter Dorothy Koppelman.
The Aesthetic Realism and Acting class, taught by Anne Fielding * is based on this concept stated by the founder of Aesthetic Realism: "Acting is a certain way of taking the contraries of the world. It is a way of being somebody else for the purpose of coming back home immediately."
In the Aesthetic Realism and Marriage classes, taught by Pauline Meglino, Anne Fielding & Barbara Allen, Aesthetic Realism consultants, women study "the opposites of contempt and respect in the history of marriage and in their own lives including yesterday's incident at the breakfast table."
In the Learning to Like the World class, Robert Murphy and Barbara Allen teach young people how "everything — from a flower to mathematics to their mothers — can be used to like the world!"
_____________
* Director of the Aesthetic Realism Theatre Company
|
|
