The Rest of Our Lives, Judy Goldman’s new memoir, grew out of Judy’s response to turning eighty, but it is not really an account of the trials and tribulations of being an older person in contemporary America. Instead, Judy focuses The Rest of Our Lives on the many connections between her past experiences and her current life. As she stated in a recent interview, “Life is simply a series of passages where you find yourself in new, uncharted territory. You can almost connect the dots, see how that final stage of life is similar to all the previous stages.” By focusing on the ways in which her past and her present experiences interrelate, Judy shows how key moments in her life have prepared her to face the challenges associated with old age.
In many ways, however, The Rest of Our Lives, is not limited to the particularities of Judy’s life. If it were, the book would not include the words “our lives” in the title. Judy’s new memoir provides all readers with insights on navigating the life passages that we all face as we age. Throughout her memoir, Judy invites readers to reflect on the meaning of their own experiences.
Given Judy’s interest in writing a book that relates to all of “our lives,” it is not surprising that the book is tied to her experiences as a writing teacher at Charlotte Lit and elsewhere. When commenting on how she came to write The Rest of Our Lives, she specifically mentions how working with her students insired her to write this memoir:
At 80, I felt I’d written everything I had to write. What was left? I was sad to give up writing. Writing keeps me nice. If I’m not writing, you don’t want to be around me. But then it came to me: If I tell students in my memoir workshops, “Write about what keeps you up at night,” I need to take my own advice. I was thinking a lot about aging. I needed to write about it.
The official launch of Judy’s The Rest of Our Lives will take place at Park Road Books on May 6 at 7:00 pm. For more information about this free event, please click on this link: https://www.parkroadbooks.com/event/judy-goldman-discusses-her-new-book-rest-our-lives
For more information about Judy and her books, please click on the following link: http://judygoldman.com/
In thinking about Judy’s The Rest of Our Lives, I am reminded of Erik Erikson’s “Eight Ages of Man” chapter from his book Childhood and Society. In this chapter, Erikson writes about the “life cycle” and the road to becoming “a mature adult.” In Erikson’s model, mature adults who achieve “ego integrity” during their late adulthood find meaning and satisfaction in their lives, and often become known for their general “wisdom.” In pre-industrial societies, people would often turn to their village elders for wise advice on dealing with life’s challenges. Well, Storied Charlotte is a far cry of a pre-industrial village, but we still have our own wise village elder, and her name is Judy Goldman.