There is a solace in the pathos of aging and cognitive decline. In the pathos of life. Solace and a sense of the sublime side of being alive. What a wonder it all is. To experience the IS-NESS of living. The sadness, and madness, and horror, and joy, and delight–the IS-NESS and the ALL-NESS of it.
The experience of living is so beyond words, so incapable of being expressed… So beyond us all, yet we are all together in the tragedy and the wonder of it all. And I get to go out with Trump! Is that not horrific? And laughable? If I’m not crying, I’m laughing. What a release and relief death is going to be, and yet, I don’t want to miss anything! It is all so unbelievable it has to be lived to be believed!
And there is a comfort in the community, in the commonwealth, in the gathering of those who are together and bearing each other up! My liege loyalty and filial honor to you is that I will be here as long as my house has power, and will be chanting the Om Mani Padme Hum long after that! (The Jewel is in the Lotus and the Lotus is in the mud at the bottom of the pond!) No greater irony or contradiction than that! And Buddhism declares “No Duality!” But paradox and contradictin apleanty! Exactly what I’m talking about with the wonder and the pathos of life!
Jim Dollar's Photography and Philosophy 