A View of the Election from the Outposts of Old Age

An eighty-four year old woman who has been in therapy for years for chronic anxiety has a satisfying and still thriving career, a solid marriage, and a large, sprawling and emotionally involved family resulting from a second marriage to a widower which blended her three biological children with his three motherless children. There are eleven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren and she is, still, hands down, the person at whose house everyone wants to celebrate a birthday, wedding, movie premiere, art opening, or trunk show. She is affluent, generous, and actively participates in many cultural events — theater, cinema, the fine arts, ballet, museum exhibits — and contributes philanthropically to social causes and creative endeavors.

As long as I have known her, and despite her being involved in many vital activities and projects, she has always devoted a portion of every session to reviewing the current status of the children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren. Who is having a work-related success? Who is struggling financially? How can she help resolve tensions in her granddaughter's marital crisis? Will she host the fund-raiser for a school for special needs kids? Does she know of someone in publishing who would be willing to look at her son's screenplay? Is she willing to organize her childhood friend's upcoming memorial service? This ‘accounting’ of her flock is a basic form of orienting herself, in her family and in the world, like a checklist of her own well-being. Motherhood is at the core of her self, from which many aspects of identity and integrity radiate. Since turning eighty, she has become acutely aware of the crunch of time and with it, a wish to feel that things are in order and her descendants will be taken care of. Two years ago her husband had a serious stroke, and although he retrieved a significant degree of

mobility, clear speech, memory, and overall physical health, at almost 92 “he has become an old man”. Her own health is exce