Deborah Meier on Education

A Bitter Sweet Season
by Jane Gross
Knopf

I just finished rereading a book I avoided taking seriously four years ago when it was first published—because it’s about dying. It is written from the viewpoint of the daughter caring for her aged mother, but….  It is as useful for the reverse. I literally could not put it down unless sleep overcame me. It is also a useful reminder for me of how to combine the personal and the how-to. I am trying, just beginning, to do something like that regarding caring about schooling. So what? Jane’s book left me feeling much better, actually, about the fact that I will, indubitably, die some day. I can see how it might be done.

As a child and in the early years of my adulthood I had incredibly strong fears about “not being.” I had a special friend who would call me or I would call her when overcome by one of these panics. It has somehow almost entirely dissipated—even before reading Jane Gross’ account. So, maybe avoid this book until you come to that stage. It’s author is a good friend who I spent many hours with in the course of this tale.  She wrote for the New York Times for many, many years and initiated and continues to blog as The New Old Age . And for Yankee fans my age, she is also the daughter of the NY Sports Columnist we read regularly in our youth.

Thanks, Jane.

Deb

Filed under: 2015 Posts, Book Reviews |