Page 46 - The Irony Board

Into the Body

Does age’s cooling quench
Youthful burning issues,
Or follow from the brain
Burning off those tissues?

On the other hand, time does bring a change in some areas of
concern. Sociopolitical ideals and worldly ambitions fade,
unanswered ultimate questions recede in importance, injustices of
life lose their sting. Here Gluckman links two explanations of this
aspect of aging through literal and figurative meanings of “burning.”
The first possibility is that the passage of time in itself brings
cynicism and an awareness of limits and complexity. In this sense,
experience throws cold water on the fires of adolescent enthusiasm,
leaving the issues intact but no longer hot. The second theory,
physiologically speculative, proposes that the neurons encoding the
crucial motivating force are literally consumed in the body’s
program, accelerating with age, of metabolizing and flushing out
brain cells. Perhaps that would be accomplished by hormonal
targeting of specific cerebral tissue based on emotional
disruptiveness. Who knows?

44