On the Death of Dr. Robert N. Butler

We have all lost an ally this week, all of us who are aging that is, whether we be five or one hundred and five. 

I was stunned and saddened today to learn that Dr. Robert N. Butler died on July 4th. Just writing that seems implausible to me.

Two weeks ago I was in New York City interviewing Dr. Butler for a video biography project. We reviewed much of his life and work and touched on many topics, including death and illness. I don't know if he knew then how sick he was, but he didn't let on about it. He was gracious and warm, funny and poised. He was exactly as I would have expected such a great and prominent man to be - almost noble in his demeanor. I was initially drawn to the idea of doing a video biography with Dr. Butler because of the incalculable impression he has made upon the landscape of gerontology and geriatrics. It was wonderful to discover that, beyond his career achievements, he was also a genuine gentleman with a gracious perspective on the world. He was a tremendous humanitarian whose life's work fought against the pernicious impact of ageism, and he still had his sights set on so much more to do. He was in the midst of two significant new projects which I hope will be continued in honor of his work.

My thoughts and prayers go to Dr. Butler's family, friends and colleagues.

The Value of Existentialism in Meaning of Death?

I gave up on existentialism after reading Kafka's "The Trial" in college and getting very, very bummed about the meaningless of it all. This was in a literature class, mind you, not a philosophy class, so I didn't have anyone outlining what "existentialism" was. This was kind of like getting thrown into the deep end of the pool without a helmet. Or a life jacket. You get my point.

Roll forward a number of years and I downloaded a podcast on "Death Anxiety" aribitrarily on iTunes. The lecture was given by Ernesto Spinelli, an existentialist therapist from London, at a 2008 Conference on Personal Meaning. It was re-broadcast as a portion of a larger episode of the podcast series called "Big Ideas."

Anyway, I found the lecture to be pretty phenomenal in outlining the usage of contemplating meaninglessness as a way of creating meaning. I don't know... made sense at the time.

All I know for sure is that I feel like a more evolved person for having listened to it (while commuting to class the other day!), and I post it here because I know that some aspect of my studies in this Masters in Gerontology program I'm in will revolve around aspects of death and dying.

Here's the link to info on the podcast, where you can listen to it streaming:

http://www.tvo.org/TVOsites/WebObjects/TvoMicrosite.woa?bi?1229202000000

Here's where you can download Spinelli's portion of the podcast on iTunes. WARNING: This link will automatically attempt to open iTunes on your computer so you can get the podcast. If that's what you want to do, great! Otherwise, don't click. Once iTunes opens, scroll through the episodes until you find the one from 12/13/08, and there you have it!
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=129166905