Florida Scott-Maxwell: The Measure of My Days

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Word Count: 368

From The Measure of My Days by Florida Scott-Maxwell

“When a new disability arrives I look about to see if death has come, and I call quietly, ‘Death, is that you? Are you there?’ So far the disability has answered, ‘Don't be silly, it's me.’” (705).

“It is waiting for death that wears us down, and the distaste for what we may become” (706).

“Too often our problem is the fervour of life within us” (706).

“Age is not failure, nor disgrace; though mortifying we did not invent it. Age forces us to deal with idleness, emptiness, not being needed, not able to do, helplessness just ahead perhaps … Yet it is the end of our procession through time, and our steps are uncertain” (706).

Florida Scott-Maxwell discusses the process of aging and the idea of death as an old woman. Maxwell had evidently learned and thought a lot about this subject. She claims the duality of old age is the fact that our bodies betray us and yet our fervour of life still runs rampant within us. Maxwell portrays the process of old age as a relationship between the human, disability and death. As each new disability and pain comes with this old age, Maxwell has found they long for it to be replaced by death, but consistently it is only a new disability that causes both physical and emotional damage. She even calls death a friend because it would release us from disability’s grasp. However, she says it is the waiting for death that wears us down. Therefore it is our fervour of life that we should embrace during this time of old age. Look to the positive rather than the negative. Even though there is much bad that comes with old age, Maxwell also found the good. She found that age is simply a new stage of life that requires us to learn skills that we had never had to learn before. How to deal with helplessness that comes with these disabilities, how to be alone which can be beautiful, how to deal with idleness and not being able to do things the way you used to. It is simply the end of the road of life, and shows the life we have lived.


Comments

  1. Paige CardunerApril 21, 2023 at 6:43 AM

    I think this story is very interesting because it was from the perspective from old women who reflects on her life and the timeline she went through. I think you did an amazing job depicting the excerpt and giving your two cents. Maxwell did an interesting approach at her writing when she started talking about death and the significance behind it. I like how you mentioned how waiting for death weighs us down because I have never thought about it from that aspect and it was really interesting to think about. Overall I think you did a great job in this reflection!

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