GERIATRIC DYLAN:BOB DYLAN ON THE SOCIAL

PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING AND DYING

A Review of the Ideas in Time Out of Mind

by

Michael SchwartzDepartment of SociologyUniversity at Stony Brook

Stony Brook NY 11794

Copyright 1999 by Michael Schwartz

GERIATRIC DYLAN:BOB DYLAN ON THE SOCIAL

PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING AND DYING

A Review of the Ideas in Time Out of Mind

Prologue

Back in the 1960s, we could hardly expect the intellectual establishment to heed much less embrace the insights about American life and politics that were contained in Bob Dylan’s lyrics. In those days, the academyand the media were dominated by children of the rich and/or assimilated European immigrants who embraced the old “high culture/ low culture” distinction, saw rock and roll as a social problem, and analyzed the student rebellions of the 1960s as a narcissistic exercise. The intelligentsia was part of the problem: it could not comprehend the validity ofhis portrait of life; it could not appreciate his poetry; and it was even one of the targets for his criticism.1

But things are different now. The American intelligentsia is dominated by people who we adolescents and

1 Perhaps the most pointed of all his criticisms of intellectuals was his inclusion of the sarcastic phrase “You who philosophize …” in the refrain of ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’.

young adults in the 1960s, and many were committed participants in the rebellions of that era – both cultural and political. Many, if not most, listened to Dylan in his (and their) youth; and many continue to listen to him today.The rebels who digested his insights about the ugly realities of U.S. society in the 1960s, who explored the drug culture with him in the 1970s, and who, like him, became immersed in personal issues in the 1980s, now have leverage over many of the institutions that Dylan pointed toas the source of the problem, way back when.

And so there is no excuse for neglecting our obligationto treat Dylan as one of the most important thinkers of his generation; as someone who frequently caught a glimpse of “the truth”, and transmitted it to a surprising proportion of his listeners. And this obligation goes beyond simply appreciating his music and absorbing his ideas: it means working with them, making them a part of the intellectual discourse; and it may even imply developing them as a part of ongoing scholarship.

Time Out of Mind offers a fascinating perspective on the unique tensions of old age, a vivid catalogue of the key tasks that confront us as we experience these tensions, and a focused portrait of our ultimate goals as we move from the active careers into superficially inactive retirement. And this, in turn, leads to a set of challenging propositions about the social psychology of aging that

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contrast sharply with both academic and received wisdom. Among these challenging propositions are:

Old age is a time when our tired bodies can no longertolerate the tension created by our grappling with theongoing emotional issues of our lives.

Nostalgia – the pre-occupation of old folks withearlier times – is not a predominately pleasantexperience. It derives from a restless and evendesperate review of unresolved tensions and conflictsin old and continuing relationships.

Old folks do not withdraw into their circle ofintimates because it is warm and comfortable. Thisprocess is largely an active and even angry alienationfrom the “real world,” coupled with a search for a kindof healing intimacy that will resolve ongoing tensionsand allow us to face death without panic.

Facing death without panic may rest on our ability toreturn to the simple sensual pleasures of “communingwith nature” – of cultivating and exploiting ourability to derive pleasure from the sights, sounds andsmells of the natural world.

Taken as a whole, Dylan’s portrait of old age constitutes the beginning of an intellectual perspective worthy of our attention.

“The ‘Voice of Youth’ Grows Old

When we told a friend of ours that Bob Dylan’s Time Out

of Mind was devoted to themes of aging and dying, he commented, “So that’s what happens when the voice of youth

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grows old.” And maybe he’s right; the representatives of the young – if they make it to old age – are candidates for describing and representing a new “older generation.” But Dylan is nevertheless unique, because he is going far beyondsimply symbolizing “old age.” He has embraced it with a fervor that few “voices of youth” have ever mustered (perhaps because so many of then die young, as Dylan almost did). And this fervor allows him to apply his most preciousgift – his ability to explore the psychological core of human interaction – with unusually rich results.

And yet the voice we hear in Time Out of Mind is fundamentally different from his voice as a spokesperson of youth. Whereas early Dylan was often explicitly analytic (see, for example, ‘Masters of War’ or ‘Hard Rain’) and sometimes even pedantic (see, for example, ‘Times They are aChangin’’ or ‘The Lonesome Ballad of Hattie Carroll’); the songs in Time Out of Mind rarely stray from the apparently concrete description of specific relationships and Dylan’s personal feelings about them. So, unlike his youthful exhortations, he now leaves it to the listener to extract the broader meaning in the lyrics of a song or the album as a whole. In fact, Dylan, like many other authors and moviedirectors, may simply have written what “sounds right” to him, and may not even have articulated to himself the underlying themes that permeate the album.

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Be that as it may, the themes are there; more or less available to the persistent listener, and well worth the effort. Because, like the young Dylan, the old Dylan is an astute observer of human life and human emotion and human frailty. And even if – as is the case here – Dylan is speaking only about the issues faced by individuals and not the global political issues that he addressed years ago; he still has that uncanny eye that yields fascinating observations about people and the human condition. And, despite the lack of overt generalization, he retains the insight into social processes that allows him to shape these observations (implicitly or explicitly) into challenging analyses of the human condition.

Fixin’ to Die

As with most of Dylan’s albums, even the decidedly lesser ones, Time Out of Mind is laced with vivid descriptionsof people, of relationships, and of the world at large. Consider, for example, the following samples:

About people:

She studies me closely as I sit downShe got a pretty face and long white shiny legs.

(‘Highlands’)

About relationships:

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Don’t know if I saw youIf I would kiss you or kill youIt probably wouldn’t matter to you anyhow.

(‘Standing in the Doorway’)

About the world at large:

When you think that you’ve lost everything,You find out that you can always lose a little more.

(‘Trying to Get to Heaven’)

But what sets this apart from Dylan’s work in the last decade (and maybe two decades) is the broader meaning of theideas, the way the images fit together into something larger. In the recent past, an album might contain one songthat was worth “analyzing” – figuring out what all the images add up to (“Jokerman” comes to mind). But in Time

Out of Mind every song rewards attention, and together they offer fascinating themes about what sorts of issues confrontus when we face the end of our lives, and the modalities available to us in dealing with them.

The most overt of these continuing themes is the pervasive pre-occupation with death itself. It is the topicof one song (‘Not Dark Yet’), it appears in some overt way in at least six of the other 10, and it permeates the mood of the album as a whole. Consider, for example, these images:

I know the mercy of God must be near('Standing in the Doorway')

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I feel like I’m comin’ to the end of my way(‘’Til I Fell in Love With

You’)

I’m walkin’ through streets that are dead(‘Love Sick’ )

It’s way past midnight(‘Can’t Wait’)

It’s almost like, almost like I don’t exist(‘Cold Irons Bound’)

That’s where I’ll be when I get called home(‘Highlands’)

It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there(‘Not Dark Yet’)

Without exception, these references, and the longer passages that surround them, convey an unsettled, unready relationship to death. Dylan is asserting (for himself and for the rest of us) the sense that there is far too much unfinished business for death to be peaceful or even acceptable. And, in each of these surrounding passages, heframes this unsettled state by pointing to unresolved relationships that he can neither mend nor leave behind. And these tensions frame for Dylan the great challenge of old age: to resolve this unfinished emotional business, because that is the only way that we can face death without the panic and fear.

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This broad theme is the central subject matter of Time

Out of Mind. The album is, stated simply, a reconnoitering ofhow we accumulate the tensions from unfulfilled, unrequited,and unresolved emotional bonds, and why we must revisit, reanalyze, and reconstitute these bonds if we are to live out our old age with any degree of peace or acceptance. Consider, for example, the passage quoted above from 'Standing in the Doorway.’ It’s full context is :

The ghost of our old love has not gone awayDon’t look like it will anytime soonYou left me standin’ in the doorway cryin’Under the midnight moon

Maybe they’ll get me and maybe they won’tBut not tonight and it won’t be hereThere are things I could say, but I don’tI know the mercy of God must be near

Followed a little later by the couplet

I know I can’t winBut my heart just won’t give in

Dylan is saying that he realizes that this relationship – anancient one terminated many years before (“the ghost of our old love’) – is long dead and not renewable; but he still can’t get past it and can’t stop reworking it in his mind and longing for its renewal (“my heart just won’t give in”).And, more broadly, it is this lack of resolution makes it impossible for him to relax and face a peaceful death (“butnot tonight and it won’t be here”).

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This juxtaposition of death and “old love” is found in all of the passages quoted above, but it is most fully expressed in Dylan’s ode to death, ‘Not Dark Yet’, which begins with a vivid expression of fear of dying:

Shadows are falling and I been here all dayIt’s too hot to sleep and time is running awayFeel like my soul has turned into steelI’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal.There’s not even room enough to be anywhereIt’s not dark yet, but it’s getting

This verse lays out Dylan’s perception of the basic dilemma of death: that “time is running away”, but he can’t relax because the “scars” have not “healed.” As a consequence,his soul – that is, his sense of connection with other people – “has turned into steel.”2

The source of these problems lies in unresolved relationships:

Well my sense of humanity is going down the drainBehind every beautiful thing, there’s been some kind of painShe wrote me a letter and she wrote it so kindShe put down in writin’ what was in her mindI just don’t see why I should even careIt’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

2 The reference to the “scars that the sun didn’t heal” is worth noting for another reason. Throughout Time Out of Mind, Dylan makes ironic reference to our association of the sun with rebirth and healing. Hispoint is that the “sun,” “springtime,” and other rejuvenating natural events no longer work for him or for the rest of us as we grow old. We need something more instrumental to resolve the issues that plague us.

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The key here is the assertion that “behind every beautiful thing, there’s been some kind of pain.” Dylan is asserting the key dialectic theme of Time Out of Mind: that it is the warm and wonderful relationships he has established that become discomforting torture later on, an assertion that is illustrated by the letter he received that has triggered this anguish. But even more poignantly, he can’t understand which he “should even care.” Why can’t bygones bebygones?

A hint to the source of his (and our) inability to lay old relationships to rest is contained in the next stanza:

Well, I been to London and I been to gay ParieI followed the river and I got to the seaI’ve been down to the bottom of a whirlpool of liesI ain’t lookin’ for nothin’ in anyone’s eyesSometimes my burden is more than I can bearIt’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

Dylan indicates that he has fully explored the frivolous life of youth, and that the “whirlpool of lies” that characterize that life has led him to expect little from relationships – that is, he “ain’t lookin for nothin’ in anyone’s eyes.” However, this detachment doesn’t work emotionally, it only increases his discomfort to the point that the “burden is more than I can bear.”

And in the final verse, Dylan expresses a despair aboutfinding peace, a vision that the “burden” will ultimately hasten his death, despite his resistance:

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I was born here and I’ll die here, against my willI know it looks like I’m movin’, but I’m standin’ stillEvery nerve in my body is so naked and numbI can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away fromDon’t even hear the murmur of a prayerIt’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

He fears that he will in fact “die here”, without resolvinganything, and despite his best efforts (“it looks like I’m movin’ but I’m standin’ still”). But all this is against his will. He is still attempting to find his way out of theemotional morass that has left him “naked and numb.”

This is a bald statement of the dilemma that permeates Time Out of Mind, and which animates the ruminations found throughout the album. But there is more. Dylan elaborates and explains the connections he makes here between death andlove, between apparently frivolous youthful relationships and our attempts to find peace in old age, and between the alienation of old age and its engagement with memories of these relationships.

What is the Essence of Aging?

One of the most striking propositions that emerges fromTime Out of Mind is the idea that growing old involves a deterioration of the body, but not the mind. This is perhaps best captured by the vivid couplet at the beginning of the very first song:

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My feet are so tiredMy brain is so wired

(‘Love Sick’)

This theme is reiterated over and over again: that as he grows older, Dylan (and the rest of us) experiences physical fatigue, but his emotions continue full blast, making demands and seeking some sort of resolution. When weare young, this emotional energy is the animating factor in ambition and desire: but, as our bodies grow older, it becomes more and more of a burden, not only because our bodies are tired, but also because the emotions are less straightforward and they cannot be satisfied in the course of daily interaction. So more and more of our lives must be devoted to settling these emotional issues, or laying theconflicts in our lives to rest, and therefore matching the physical fatigue with mental peace. And, as a consequence, we conduct our relationships with a very different purpose. The frivolity and ephemerality of youthful affairs is no longer satisfying or even acceptable.

The spirit of young affairs is captured beautifully in‘ ’Til I Fell in Love With You,’:

Boys in the street, beginning to playGirls like birds, flyin’ awayWhen I’m gone, you will remember my nameI’m gonna win my wayTo wealth and fame

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This lays out the mentality of youth, and allows us to see both its genius and its folly. His reference to “boys” and “girls” evokes the short term relationships that are essentially “play”: young people engage each other for the moment (or the day or the year), absorbing what is exciting about their partners (sexual or otherwise), and retaining the memories of that individual as part of the quest for “wealth and fame.”

This sense of the impermanence, cynicism, and golddigging of youthful love is sprinkled through the album,usually as a commentary on the various lost loves and friendships chronicled in it. Consider, for example, these phrases

Rock me pretty baby all at onceRock me for a little whileRock me for a couple of months

(‘Million Miles’)

You took the silver, you took the goldYou left me standing out in the cold

(‘Million Miles’)

Well the fat’s in the fire, and the water’s in the tankAnd the whiskey’s in the jar, and the money’s in the bank

(‘Cold Irons Bound’)

But these games become burdens when we are older. And they become burdens both because we need something more in later life and because such casual affairs turn out to be

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less casual than we intend – they leave behind unresolved feelings and longings and conflicts that infect our daily and monthly and yearly lives. As a consequence, the chief issue of old age becomes addressing the tensions that a lived life produces, not the least of which is the emotionaldetritus of all those youthful affairs.

Much of this is captured in ‘’Til I Fell in Love With You’:

Well my nerves are explodingAnd my body is tenseI feel like the whole worldGot me pinned up against the fenceI been hit too hardSeen too muchNothing can heal me nowBut your touch

(‘’Til I Fell in Love With You’)

Here Dylan evokes the same mental restlessness we discussed above; this time with the image that “my nerves are exploding.” And there is the same sense of being physically overwhelmed (being “pinned up against the fence”). But now we see why he is physically exhausted: because of the accumulated blows of so many years of struggle, he has been “hit too hard” and “seen too much.” That is, over the years, he has discovered that that this pursuit of “wealth and fame,” however satisfying, results inthe accumulation of emotional blows that simply do not heal without being directly addressed. And so, the purpose of

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relationships has changed for him: instead being a part of the pursuit of wealth and fame, they become the cure for theailments created by that pursuit (“Nothing can heal me now but your touch”).3

The healing relationships that Dylan now seeks are, unfortunately, not so easy to come by. They are differently constructed, and they have to involve the sort of intimacy that can only come from many years of shared experiences. They therefore take time to build, and time isone thing that the aging Dylan has too little of.

And this creates an incredible Catch 22, because Dylan (and the rest of us) only knows how to create the relationships of youth; and – perhaps even worse – most of the people he (and we) encounter are simply not looking for relationships that could “heal” the wounds created by the world pinning him “up against the fence.” That is certainly the case in ‘ ’Til I Fell in Love With You’: Dylan feels he cultivated a healing relationship, but his partner was stillplaying by the old rules. The result was worse than nothingat all:

Well junk’s pilin’ up, takin’ up space

3 This imagery appears to be taken from Marvin Gaye’s song ‘Sexual Healing’. What Dylan adds is the sense of desperation and the sharp contrast between sexual healing and the more frivolous relationships cultivated by young people. In a sense, the whole album is filled withthis contrast between the sorts of relationships that Dylan cultivatedand constructed over the years, and the type of relationship he now seeks and needs.

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My eyes feel like they’re fallin’ off my faceSweat fallin’ down, I’m starin’ at the floorI’m think’ about that girl, who won’t be back no moreI just don’t know what to doI was allright ‘til I fell in love with you

“That girl” has left him, undoubtedly to pursue “wealth and fame” and expecting him to “remember” her fondly and withoutrancor. But Dylan is so obsessed by her departure that he is letting his life disintegrate (“junk’s pilin’ up”) and heis personally immobilized (“I’m starin’ at the floor”). This all explains the refrain of the song: “I just don’t know what to do/ I was allright ‘til I fell in love with you.”

And, ironically, Dylan can find no response except the traditional one of youth: fleeing the scene to pursue “wealth and fame”:

Well I’m tired of talkin,’ I’m tired of tryin’ to explainMy attempts to please you, they were all in vainTomorrow night before the sun goes downIf I’m still among the livin’, I’ll be Dixie boundStill I just don’t know what I’m gonna doI was allright ‘til I fell in love with you

Clearly, here, this departure is involuntary, and it evokes the image that Dylan has no choice except to retreat into his professional life as a singer (“I’ll be Dixie bound”). That is, if death has not yet found him (“If I’m still among the livin.’” And that, perhaps, is the biggest

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point: time is running out and that he could die before finding the peace he seeks.

This idea infuses the album: that the key issue as we grow old is to find emotional peace after a lifetime of cultivating and embracing emotional turmoil. And this search actually involves a triad or contradictory psychological processes: alienation from the world that cultivates emotionally ephemeral relationships (as the spiceof youthful life); a simultaneous clinging to these same relationships in the hopes of resolving the turmoil they have created; and a desire to transform them into the sort of healing relationships we need as we grow older.

The Process of Detachment

For Dylan, part of growing old has been a hard-to-acquire understanding that the he (and we) cannot continue to inhabit the emotional world of young people . He is bothobserving and explaining the detachment that old people feelfrom “life” – as we commonly live it – and from “youth” – as we usually glorify it. Time Out of Mind is filled with a sense of this detachment, often expressed with the sort of ironic imagery that has always characterized Dylan’s lyrics.The phrase, “in the dark land of the sun” ('Standing in theDoorway'), for example, captures this feeling: that he (andother old people) is unhappy in a the bright world that

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others (who are not old) enjoy4 And the phrase “I got new eyes, everything looks far way” (‘Highlands’), captures the sense that the hard-earned wisdom of old age actually alienates us from life in general.

And sometimes, Dylan bluntly states this sense of isolation:

There’s too many people, too many to recallI thought some of ‘em were friends of mineI was wrong about em all

(‘Cold Irons Bound’)

But this detachment is inevitably connected to a sort of clinging to these same relationships, an almost morbid fascination with them. This is expressed both by the relentless preoccupation with old and even ancient romances and friendships in Time Out of Mind, and by the many times thatDylan speaks of renewing or continuing old affairs that he and/or his partner have abandoned. This nostalgia is indelibly connected to the detachment, and constitutes a keypart of the broader argument that Dylan is making about the social psychology of aging.

One variant of this detachment is the explicit rejection of youthful love, even while Dylan remains immersed in its attractions. This is expressed most

4 More explicitly, the context of the song makes it clear that “land ofthe sun” is a reference to youthful love; it is a “dark land” for Dylan because he cannot participate in the happy proceedings. He states this same theme later in the song, this time with the more straightforward phrase, “All the laughter is just makin’ me sad”.

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completely in ‘Love Sick’, the first song in the album, which contains the refrain:

I’m sick of loveThat I’m in the thick of itThis kind of loveI’m so sick of it

This is a straightforward denunciation of “love” as we know it (“I’m sick of love”), together with an acceptance that hecannot escape it or may even be addicted to it (“I’m in the thick of it”). But in order to assert the counter image – to make sure that we realize that something better is possible – he includes in each refrain the phrase “This kind of love/ I’m so sick of it.”

The beginning of the song strikes the theme of detachment, as well as his inability to find emotional peace:

I’m walking, through streets that are deadWalking, walking with you in my head

My feet are so tiredMy brain is so wiredAnd the clouds are weeping

The next section is a partial catalogue of the problemsthat arise from “this kind of love”:

Did I, hear someone tell a lieDid I, hear someone’s distant cry

I spoke like a child

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You destroyed me with a smileWhile I was sleeping

I’m sick of loveThat I’m in the thick of itThis kind of loveI’m so sick of it

The catalogue begins with the practice of telling lies to lovers, part of the process of using each other to gain fameand fortune (“someone tell a lie”). It continues with the familiar pattern of distancing ourselves from the problems of our partners (“someone’s distant lie”). And then Dylan registers a much larger complaint: creation of unequal dependency relationships like those between children and adults (“I spoke like a child”); the use of these unequal relationships for self aggrandizement, but under the guise of caring (“You destroyed me with a smile”); and the concealment of motives and actions while all this is going on (“While I was sleeping”).

All this has a wonderful alternating quality. Even though the song is overtly a denunciation of the way Dylan (and the rest of us) has been treated, he is careful to include implied criticism of himself (and the rest of us) for our part in constructing and destroying these relationships. Thus, it is he who hears a “distant cry” anddoes nothing; and it is he who initiates the inequality (“I spoke like a child”).

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Dylan then asserts his inability to separate himself from young love:

I see, I see lovers in the meadowI see, I see silhouettes in the window

I watch them ‘til they’re goneAnd they leave me hangin’ onTo a shadow

I’m sick of loveI hear the clock tickThis kind of loveI’m lovesick

Here he asserts his fascination with – and longing for – “this kind of love” while expressing his alienation as well. “Silhouettes in the window” refers to an old Doo Wop hit from Dylan’s youth (‘Silhouettes on the Shade’), in which the singer is at first infuriated because he thinks that his girlfriend is one of the silhouettes kissing behinda shade; ultimately he discovers his mistake and hurries to her house to become a silhouette himself. Dylan simply watches “’til their gone” and ends up clinging to the “shadow.” He is no longer the activist lover of his youth: these silhouettes do not energize him; instead they create awistful nostalgia, while at the same time creating a new kind of urgency, captured by the phrase “I hear the clock tick” in the altered refrain. Here, as in many other places, Dylan asserts the sense of running out of time; that

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he may not be able to find what he needs or to construct it before he dies.5

Dylan then offers his sense of despair about achieving some closure in this particular relationship (and all of theothers that are haunting him).

Sometimes, the silence can be like thunderSometimes, I wanna take to the road of plunder

Could you ever be true?I think of you and wonder

The “silence” here refers to the lack of real communication,and the “road of plunder” is the sort of exploitative attitude towards friends and lovers that Dylan is trying to put behind him. Thus, the failure to communicate is sometimes overwhelming, and it is tempting to seek out the short term ego-food of exploitative relationships. This temptation is amplified by his doubt that this particular partner could “ever be true”; and so his efforts to settle these issues are probably fruitless.

And this despair leads to an even greater despair, expressed as the conviction that he would have been better off – all told – having never involved himself with this partner.

5 This is most emphatically asserted as the pervasive theme of ‘Trying to Get to Heaven.’ See also ‘Standing in the Doorway’(“I got nothin’left to burn”), ‘Highlands’ (“I wish someone’d come and push back the clock for me”), or ‘Million Miles’ (“I keep asking myself how long it can go on like this”).

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I’m sick of loveI wish I’d never met you I’m sick of loveI’m tryin’ to forget you

This sentiment is the linchpin of Dylan’s whole argument andhis principle insight into the dangers of young love. Dylandoes not say “I wish I’d never met you” because there weren’t enough good elements to offset the bad; he is saying this in retrospect because the unresolved issues that arose from “this kind of love” continue to haunt him. They have not been forgotten; and they cannot be put aside (even though “I’m trying to forget you”); and he is therefore constantly pre-occupied and upset long after the whole thing should have been laid to rest.

And, finally, this inability to resolve these relational issues becomes the animating element in Dylan’s (and ours) desire to revisit and revive old loves and friendships that, by all rights, should have been long forgotten or at least long ago put to rest:

Just don’t know what to doI’d give anything to be with you

Really, he has little alternative but to crave a revival. He can’t get her out of his mind, and even though he doubts if she can “ever be true”, he can’t put her in thepast either. So he needs to re-establish the relationship

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and try to either get it right this time or else find some more settled way to end it.

Perhaps the most forceful part of this dialectical vision about the route to meaning is that Dylan asserts the necessity of finding a new type of love by foraging through these old relationships. He denies the possibility of finding a fresh relationship at this point, and building up something substantive and supportive. Consider, for example, this couplet from 'Standing in the Doorway':

Last night I danced with a strangerBut she just reminded me you were the one

This is the source of his urgency: such a new relationship would not have time to ripen through the sort of shared growth that long-term friendships and partnershipsinvolve.6 And, as a consequence, Dylan rejects the notion that he can (or we can) build a circle of friends and loversfrom scratch late in life. Such a circle could not possiblyunderstand and relate to all the internal craziness we have accumulated over the years, and which must be scrutinized and therapized (perhaps because new friends would not haveparticipated in its construction).

The hopelessness Dylan feels about constructing new relationships does more than push him (and the rest of old

6 This sentiment is elaborately developed in ‘Highlands’, where Dylan describes in detail his inability to engage in a new relationship witha waitress in a Boston restaurant.

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people) into a contradictory detachment/attachment to old relationships: it also leads to a detachment/fascination with a huge proportion of mundane interaction because so much of it is devoted to creating new bonds or searching forpeople with whom to create such bonds. Dylan is basically asserting that part of the aging process is to become impatient with all this wheel spinning and with all these superficial relationships; and therefore an inability to tolerate much of daily interaction. The sense of detachmenttherefore infuses all aspects of daily life.

The definitive statement of this detachment is one partof the epic, ‘Highlands’, the last song on the album. Early in the song, Dylan bluntly asserts his alienation fromeveryday life:

I don’t want nothin’ from anyone, ain’t that much to takeWouldn’t know the difference between a real blonde and a fakeFeel like a prisoner in a world of mysteryI wish someone’d come and push back the clock for me

The opening line is definitive: Dylan finds little of interest in what the world at large has to offer. He illustrates this detachment with a clever reference to an old Clairol commercial, in which you can’t tell the difference between a “real” blonde and a “Clairol blonde”: he isn’t interested in knowing because he isn’t interested in the status of dating a “blonde..” But then he offers the contradictory vision that, despite his desire to detach

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altogether from this world, there is something profound out there (“a world of mystery”). And this leads to yet anothervariant to the running-out-of-time theme, this time assertedas part of the need to unravel the world of mystery (“I wishsomeone’d come and push back the clock for me”).

Later in ‘Highlands’, Dylan offers a more detailed discussion of the nature of his detachment:

Every day is the same thingOut the door, feel further away than ever beforeSome things in life, it just gets too late to learnWell I’m lost somewhere, I must have made a few bad turns

I see people in the park, foregettin’ their troubles and woesThey’re drinkin’ an dancin’, wearin’ bright colored clothesAll the young men with the young women lookin’ so goodWell I’d trade places with any of ‘em, in a minute, if I could

I’m crossin’ the street to get away from a mangy dogTalkin’ to myself in a monologueI think what I need might be a full length leather coatSomebody just asked me if I’m registered to vote

The theme of these passages is contained in the phrase “feelfurther away than ever before”: Dylan is asserting his growing alienation from mundane life. He presses this pointfurther by commenting that it is “too late to learn” much ofwhat might have made things better out there; and he even accepts that his own “bad turns” have contributed to this incapacity.

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But, as in other iterations of this theme, the next stanza expresses his nostalgia for youth (notably: “all the young men and the young women lookin’ so good/ I’d trade placeswith any of ‘em, in a minute if I could”). But here he makes it clear that he has no real ability to deal with thatlife – by offering a real sample of how his day looks (avoiding a “mangy dog”, talking to himself in a “monologue”, contemplating the purchase of a “full length leather coat”, and solicitations about being “registered to vote”). All this adds up to the most trivial and meaningless existence, one that he cannot bear.

And this all leads to an alienation from even the natural environment, an ongoing subtext in all the songs.

The sun is beginnin’ to shine on meBut it’s not like the sun that used to beThe party’s over and there’s less and less to sayI got new eyes, everything looks far away

The key here is that the sun – universal symbol for newbeginnings – now has a very different meaning. Instead of exciting him to new adventures and new relationships, this is a new sun that indicates his abandonment of frivolity (“the party’s over”); instead with his “new eyes” he has removed himself from all of this (“everything looks far away”). The world, as it is currently constituted, cannot provide him with what he needs. 7

7 It is important to note that this is not the end of the song; the final stanza (and also the beginning of ‘Highlands’) asserts his

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The Nature of Nostalgia

The definitive denunciation of the superficial world (of youth) contained in ‘Highlands’ only underscores Dylan’sinability to abandon it. Despite his clearheaded rejection of that world, Dylan clings to the past loves and friendships that constitute his most important engagement init.

This clinging is made up of the three components. One of these components is the familiar sense of envy that old people feel – that “youth is wasted on the young.” Most the songs contain this theme, in which Dylan wants to relive those old days with the wisdom he now possesses. (And don’t we all – at least those of us who have reached the point of looking back.)

A less familiar component is the one we uncovered in ‘Love Sick’; Dylan offers the proposition that the emotional turmoil that plagues older people grows out of thefrivolous relationships that young people cultivate so mindlessly; that the unresolved conflicts and projects in those earlier ties remain as the unfinished business that prevents a peaceful old age. And this means that he (and we) must complete the various projects that each relationship contained – to see the friendships and partnerships through to their logical emotional conclusion.

vision of a good life, one which is strangely devoid of all human content. See below, Peace on Earth

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This is a mutual process: one in which both parties must resolve what they have gotten or not gotten, and reach a sense of closure about what the relationship did and did not do for them. The unresolved issues catalogued in Time Out

of Mind constitute a smorgasbord of friction and restlessness, but their gestalt clearly conveys enormity of the project Dylan is undertaking and the generality of this process as a key element of old age:

In 'Standing in the Doorway', Dylan dwells on unconsummated love:

The ghost of our old love has not gone awayDon’t look like it will anytime soon.You left me standin’ in the doorway cryin’Under the midnight moon

The doorway here has many references, but most directly it speaks to the process of entry into intimacy in a most romantic setting (the “midnight moon”). It was just as Dylan approached the threshold of this intimacy and caught aglimpse of how fulfilling the partnership might have been (he was “in the doorway”), that she (he?) left him. And Dylan cannot get past this act of abandonment; it continues to haunt him like so many other unresolved issues from old relationships. But more importantly, he is not even sure what he wants anymore, considering his conviction that his partner has no interest in re-establishing and consummating the relationship:

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Don’t know if I saw you, if I would kiss you or kill youIt probably wouldn’t matter to you anyhowThe ghost of our old love has not gone awayDon’t look like it will anytime soon.I’ve got nothin’ to go back to now

So even when there is no hope of establishing a reasonable relationship, and when Dylan cannot be sure what he wants from revisiting it, he is nevertheless preoccupied and unsettled. The issues must, somehow, be laid to rest.

In ‘Cold Irons Bound’, the problem was, on the one hand, Dylan’s panicky feeling that he was losing himself:

One look at you and I’m out of controlLike the universe has swallowed me whole

His partner, on the other hand, cannot open herself (himself?) to Dylan’s intimacy:

There’s a wall of pride high and wideCan’t see over to the other side

And the consequence is summed up on one of those Dylanesque images:

It’s you and you only I’m thinking aboutBut you can’t see in, and it’s hard looking out

In ‘Million Miles’, Dylan offers a catalogue of ways that the little crimes committed in casual affairs come backto haunt us, and result in creating a “million miles” of distance between us. One particularly vivid image has to dowith small, unintentional injuries that he has come to

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appreciate only after the relationship has probably been destroyed:

I’m driftin’ in and out of dreamless sleepSomehow my memory’s in a ditch so deepDid so many things I never did intend to doAnd I try to get closer, but I’m still a million miles from you

Another is the practice of fooling ourselves about what is going on:

You told yourself a lieThat’s alright mama, I told myself one tooI try to get closer, but I’m still a million miles from you

And this, like the others, becomes a part of his emotional turmoil

You took a part of me I really missI keep asking myself how long it can go on like this

The common subtext in all of this is a lack of resolution and closure. In each instance, Dylan cannot moveon with his life because the positive and negative tensions remain, keeping him from relaxing in or out of the friendships. His pre-occupation and (even active involvement) is animated by this unsettled quality, and it has taken over his life, preventing him from finding the more peaceful world that he seeks.

The agony of aging therefore resolves itself into unresolved relationships, and the nostalgia is the furthest thing from a pleasant set of memories: it is a compulsive

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revisiting of these unresolved relationships in search of closure and therefore rest.

Peace on Earth

Superficially, Time Out of Mind offers little insight intohow we can achieve emotional peace. And maybe Dylan is still immersed in the a process of discovery. The closest he comes to this is describing the sort of resolution – the sort of transformed relationship – that he craves. This is gestured at in various negative references, but it is statedmost positively in ‘Make You Feel My Love,’ in which he offers a vision of mature love that rests largely on an individuals’ willingness and ability to see their friends and lovers through the toughest emotional duress

Partly, Dylan is promising the traditional male role ofinstrumentally effective action – of solving problems:

I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blueI’d go crawling down the avenueOh, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t doTo make you feel my love

or:

I could make you happy, make you dreams come trueNothing that I wouldn’t doGo to the ends of the earth for youTo make you feel my love

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But his vision also includes the more of the traditionally feminine role of “being there,” of living with a friend’s problems for as long as it takes to see them through:

When the rain is blowing in your faceand the whole world is on your caseI could offer a warm embraceTo make you feel my love.

Or:When evening shadows and the stars appearAnd there is no one there to dry your tearsI could hold you for a million yearsTo make you feel my love

The portrait here is of a friendship or love that would not only offer the sort of personal (and possibly sexual) haven that is gestured at throughout Time Out of Mind; but also provide a locus in which all of the conflicts created by a lived life can be actually resolved – including those created by that relationship itself.

Dylan is looking back at all his friends and lovers, seeking to finish the business started by these multiple entanglements, and he needs partners in this pursuit. Thosepartners need to relate to his turmoil in a constructive way, but they also need to share his turmoil – to have been a part of creating the problems, to have experienced similarissues, and to be committed to addressing them and resolvingthem.

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But even in the midst of this positive statement, Dylanis still confronted with the same issues that have undermined the other efforts chronicled throughout the album: the unresolved issues in this relationship are captured by the fact that his proposed partner cannot committo him:

I know you haven’t made you mind up yetBut I would never do you wrongI‘ve know it from the moment that we metNo doubt in my mind where you belong

Thus, even the most positive of the images has an ironic twist. After all these years of playing around and accumulating residual tensions from unfulfilled and ultimately unconsummated relationships, Dylan now clearly sees the need for something different and more substantial. This clarity is frustrated, however, by the failure of his partner to believe in his new intentions. So he attempts toconvince her/him, by indicating that he is a changed man:

The storms are raging on the rolling seaAnd on the highway of regretThe winds of change are blowing wild and freeYou ain’t seen nothing like me yet.

There two key phrases in this passage. One is “highway ofregret,” indicating that he has rethought (and regretted) his former approach to relationships. He regrets his exploitativeness and his failure to see the need for a more

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permanent and constructive approach.8 The other refers to “the winds of change,” his promise that he now has a new approach that can develop and sustain something more meaningful.

Clearly the creation and maintenance of the healing relationships gestured at throughout Time Out of Mind and visualized in ‘Make You Fell My Love’ is a work in progress.But in another sense it is a settled part of the broader sweep of the new life that Dylan seeks to live in his old age. Perhaps we never reach the point of stable supportive relationships; perhaps he is saying that it is the effort toestablish them that counts; and that this effort is enough to allow us to face old age without panic and distress.

Knockin on Heaven’s Door

If Dylan’s description of supportive relationships remains tentative, his portrait of the rewards for successfully completing this struggle contains some of his most compelling and vividly positive images in an album (andcareer) dominated by negativity.

This imagery is less accessible than it might be because it is packaged in a religious vocabulary. Over the

8 This same feeling of regret about how he conducted earlier relationships is found at the end of ‘Trying to Get to Heaven’, culminating in the comment about his former life: “I close my eyes andwonder, if everything is as hollow as it seems”

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years, Dylan has drifted in and out of religious themes; andthis preoccupation has made many of his most avid fans uncomfortable, considering their own negative feelings aboutorganized religion. Time Out of Mind has an ample measure of these themes, sprinkled through the album, usually as part of references to death, but not always. Consider, for example, the following:

I been praying for salvationLaying round a one-room country shack

(‘Dirt Road Blues’)

I know the mercy of God must be near('Standing in the Doorway')

But I know God is my shieldAnd He won’t lead me astray

(‘’Til I Fell in Love With You’ )

Don’t even hear the murmur of a prayer(‘Cold Irons Bound’ )

But there is apparently a much larger dose of religion than we have seen in recent albums; particularly since one of the signature songs is entitled, ‘Trying to Get to Heaven.’ The title alone suggests that the subject matter is the afterlife, a religious theme of the first order that Dylan has never approached in the past.9 But this song is not actually about heaven (or the afterlife) at all.

9 ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ is about death, not the afterlife.

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Instead it uses the religious image of heaven to describe Dylan’s vision of a contented old age.

This is apparent in the first verse of the song itself:

The air is gettin’ hotter, there’s a rumbling’ in the skies.I’ve been wadin’ through the high muddy waters, with the heat risin’ in

my eyes.Every day your memory grows dimmerIt doesn’t haunt me like it did before.I’ve been walkin through the middle of nowhere,Tryin’ to get to heaven before they close the door.

The first two lines are yet another of those wonderful Dylanimages, this time describing the end-of-life crisis in termsof a miserable sojourn in inclement weather.10 Later, in the next-to-last line, he summarizes this as “walkin throughthe middle of nowhere” – offering a sense of the profound alienation that accompanies this process.

And Dylan once again anchors his discontent in an unresolved relationship. But this time – and only this time – he appears to be successfully laying the relationshipto rest. He states this overtly: “Every day your memory grows dimmer, it doesn’t haunt me like it did before.” (This is in sharp contrast to the references in other songsto relationships haunting him, despite his best efforts to forget or resolve them.) And he makes the point even more forcefully by moving on to other subjects, after one brief

10 The phrase ‘ high muddy waters’ appears to be a reference to the PeteSeeger song, ‘The Big Muddy’, in which six soldiers were drowned by anoverzealous drill sergeant on a hot muggy day.

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further reference to the relationship in the second verse. (In the other songs in Time Out of Mind the relationship remains at the center of the lyric).

And all this is focused by the final line of this verse(and every verse), containing one of the great images in allof Dylan’s poetry: “Tryin’ to get to heaven before they close the door.” Since “close the door” is another reference to death, Dylan is “tryin’ to get to heaven” before he dies. That is, Dylan is looking for “heaven on earth.”

The beauty of this metaphor is how much it captures of what Dylan (and everyone) craves. He is looking to achieve the ethereal and peaceful feeling we associate with heaven before he dies; and he expects to achieve this feeling by embracing and then surpassing the emotional detritus of all those earlier and failed relationships.

The remainder of the song speaks to the psychological wandering involved in Dylan’s effort to find “heaven on earth,” and it makes clear that this involves the sort of healing relationships that are the subtext of the album as awhole. In the second verse, he offers a sense of what his search is about, both physical and emotionally:

When I was in Missouri, they would not let me beI had to leave there in a hurry, I only saw what they let me see.You broke a heart that loved you,Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore.

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I’ve been walkin’ that lonesome valley, Tryin’ to get to heaven before they close the door.

On the one hand, the reference to Missouri continues the imagery of physical travel to new and/or distant place as part of his search for peace. On the other hand, the substance is about how he related to people, and in Missouri, people would not open up to him (“I only saw what they let me see”). And, in fact, he denounces his former lover refusing to see the relationship through (“seal up thebook and not write anymore”).

And then, in the next two verses, Dylan continues the travel metaphor in order to describe other efforts he has made to find the emotional peace he craves.

People on the platforms, waitin’ for the trains.I can hear their hearts a-beatin’, like pendulums swingin’ on chains.When you think that you’ve lost everything,You find out you can always lose a little more.I’m just going down the road feelin’ bad,Tryin’ to get to heaven before they close the door.

I’m goin’ down the river, down to New Orleans.They tell me everything is gonna be alright, but I don’t know what

alright even means. I was ridin’ in a buggy with Miss Mary Jane,Miss Mary Jane got a house in Baltimore.I’ve been all around the world boys,Now I’m tryin’ to get to heaven before they close the door.

In the first, he describes his willingness to see into people’s problems, even those of strangers (“I can hear their hearts a-beatin’), and the agony of discovering that

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even this sort of more distant empathy can be turned into misery when these efforts are rebuffed (“When you think thatyou’ve lost everything, you find out you can always lose a little more”). In the second, he references his effort to find peace in drugs (“Miss Mary Jane” is marijuana), but it left his brain addled (“I don’t know what alright even means”).

Finally, he concludes that he has no alternative but toreprise old relationships and make them right:

Gotta sleep down in the parlor, and relive my dreamsI close my eyes and I wonder, if everything is as hollow as it seemsSome trains don’t pull no gamblers No midnight {midlife} ramblers like they did beforeI’ve been to Sugartown, I shook the sugar downNow I’m tryin’ to get to heaven before they close the door

The phrase “relive my dreams” describes his current effort to revive and/or lay to rest all of the ambitions and hopes he invested in the various friendships and affairs of his youth and middle age. (He cannot rest easy until he does this, hence the reference to sleeping “in the parlor”). Andthis exploration is meant to prove that these relationships were not “as hollow” as they appear to be; that at least a few had the sort of substance that is needed to support his emotional needs in old age. He then offers a twist on the phrase “midnight ramblers” – turning it into “midlife ramblers– in order to say that the casual and exploitative relationships we cultivate as we ramble through life are no

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longer acceptable if we are going “to get to heaven before they close the door.”

Dylan’s view of the reward for finding emotional peace – or rather the portrait of what emotional peace is really like – is described in the epic ‘Highlands,’ which strikes all the themes contained in Time Out of Mind. And while doing this, it mixes together a sense of what a peaceful resolution of the turmoil might feel like with another vision of the restless quest described in ‘Trying to Get to Heaven.’ This dialectical theme is struck in the first verse:

Well my heart’s in The Highlands, gentle and fairHoneysuckle blooming in the wildwood airBluebells blazing where the Aberdeen waters flowWell my heart’s in The HighlandsI’m gonna go there when I feel good enough to go

In a sense, this is completely straightforward: Dylan is longs to travel to the Scottish Highlands, which he describes as a place without the turmoil he experiences everywhere else (it is “gentle and fair”). This peacefulnessderives from the fact that life in the Highlands is a sensual feast. In fact, in the space of two lines he manages to evoke all five senses: sight (“bluebells blazing”), sound and touch (“Aberdeen waters flow”), smell and taste (“honeysuckle blooming”).

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But even more significant is what is left out: people. In this verse and throughout this ode to peaceful happiness,the Highlands are an unpopulated natural paradise. The fivesense are variously assaulted and satiated, but no one inhabits this space with Dylan. The paradise is gorgeous and sensual and solitary. Heaven on earth, after all, becomes the ability to be happily alone with ourselves.

But nothing is simple in Dylan’s world. So despite thefact the Scottish Highlands are a physical location easily accessed by public transportation, Dylan cannot arrive therein any straightforward way. So even though Dylan’s “heart’sin the Highlands”, he is only going there when he feels “good enough to go.” This reserve about going to the place of his dreams is the final statement of the dilemma ofold age in Time Out of Mind: Dylan realizes that he cannot embrace or enjoy this sensual feast until he has resolved the emotional turmoil that infects his life.

This is made clear by the next three verses. The firsttwo describe “the same old rat race” and contain the one of those signature lines of Dylan bitterness about human relationships – “I don’t want nothin’ from anyone, ain’t that much to take.” The third returns to images of the Highlands:

Well my heart’s in The Highlands, wherever I roamThat’s where I’ll be when I get called home.The wind it whispers through the buckeye trees of rhyme.

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Well my heart’s in The HighlandsI can only get there one step at a time.

The first two lines reprise the theme of ‘Trying to Get to Heaven’: he will achieve the peacefulness of Highlands life so that he can die a peaceful death (that is, he will be there when he “gets called home”). The third line adds to the sensual description of The Highlands (and of heaven on earth); this time focused on the beautiful sounds of nature he will find there.

But these themes are familiar. In the final line Dylan delivers what is new in this verse: that he can “only get there one step at a time.” Dylan can arrive at The Highlands only by laying to rest all the emotional turmoil created by a lived life, and by finding and cultivating the relationships necessary to settle this turmoil. This involves a full exploration of his life as a whole and the resolution of the full array of problems he chronicles in Time Out of Mind.

The remainder of ‘Highlands’ follows the dialectical structure of the first few versus, alternating bitter descriptions of the relational chaos and turmoil of Dylan’s everyday life with idyllic one-verse snippets of the peaceful, relationless life waiting for him in The Highlands; and once again cataloguing the issues that must be settled in order for Dylan to arrive there. In the next cycle, he focuses on the sacrifice of moral principle

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that has overcome him, commenting that if he had any conscience left, he would probably commit suicide; if he didn’t sell out first. Clearly, restoring his conscience isone of the steps. And then he offers this additional sense of Highland life and how to achieve it:

My heart’s in The Highlands at the break of dawnBy the beautiful lake of the Black SwanBig white clouds like chariots that swing down lowWell my heart’s in The Highlands, only place left to go.

Here the sensual feast is visual, the breaking dawn, a beautiful lake and clouds in the sky. These images – and all the others evoked in this song – carry a sense of patience, that life in The Highlands is unhurried and uncluttered. It evokes the image that once the relational turmoil is laid to rest, Dylan (and the rest of us) can finally enjoy the sensual pleasures of the natural beauty ofthe world around us.

The next cycle contains the long description of the encounter with the waitress in Boston, described above. Inthe context of the song, it represents the largest and most daunting step he must take to get to the Highlands: resolve his inability to establish and sustain supportive relationships. The short description of Highland life then focuses on the barbarism of fox hunting, replete with bows and arrows, horses and hounds:

Well my heart’s in The Highlands with the horses and hounds.

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Way up in the border country far from the townsWith the twang of the arrow and the snap of the bow.My heart’s in The Highlands,Can’t see any other way to go.

It is not easy to decipher Dylan’s choice of this morally questionable activity as heaven-sent; except the suggestion that even this blood sport has a sensual essence, captured by the ‘twang’ of the arrow and the ‘snap’ of the bow. And it is also conducted ‘far from the towns’ and therefore far from people. Here again, heaven on earth is constituted by an immersion in nature and a separation from people. And then Dylan comments on the irony of the hunting image, by asserting “My heart’s, in The Highlands, can’t see any other way to go.” That is, despite the moral ambiguity of some things that occur there, it is still heaven on earth.

In the final cycle, Dylan comments on the emptiness of everyday life, with people trying to forget their “troubles and woes” with drinking, dancing, and the purchase of “a full length leather coat.” And in the final return to The Highlands, Dylan comments on the possibility of actually getting there:

Well my heart’s in The Highlands at the break of day.Over the hills and far away.There’s a way to get there, and I’ll figure it out somehow.Well I’m already there in my mind and that’s good enough for now.

While he’s confident that he will find his way there, he affirms that it is the intention that counts. For it is

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that intention that leads him to explore and redefine his goals; to review and revive old issues that infect his personal life; to seek out and cultivate new ways of relating to people; and to offer and receive the sort of emotional support that he needs to achieve the sensual feastof heaven on earth.

Conclusion

Dylan’s music has never been “easy listening”, and Time

Out of Mind is difficult in every way. And even at its most rewarding, it is difficult to endure in large doses, since the underlying ideas challenge us to re-organize how we conduct our affairs to avoid or minimize the agony he says is coming.

This challenge is most apparent in his unorthodox view of nostalgia –the pre-occupation of old folks with earlier times. According to Dylan, this is not a predominately pleasant experience. It derives from a restless and even desperate review of unresolved tensions and conflicts in oldand continuing relationships. As we grow older, we accumulate a such a large backlog of these tensions that they eventually become the foreground of our existence, crowding out our previous preoccupation with career and ruining our attempts to achieve peace and quiet in our old age.

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The route to emotional peace requires the transformation of these tension-filled relationships into “healing” connections that confront old wounds and resolve them. Given the problematic process of reconnecting to old friends and lovers, this is at best an iffy proposition and at worst an emotional nightmare that infects our lives with restless regret, anger, and tension. Unfortunately for manyof us, old age therefore becomes a time when our tired bodies cannot tolerate the tension created by our restless pre-occupation with by-gone times and best-forgotten friendsand lovers.

This is tied to a second unorthodox rethinking of the dynamics of old age: old folks do not withdraw into their circle of intimates because it is warm and comfortable. Andthis proposition actually contains two controversial elements: first, that this withdrawal is an active and even angry alienation from the “real world”; and, second, that the circle of intimates is rife with emotional turmoil whichmust be resolved as a prerequisite for a peaceful old age.

The first element in this proposition derives from Dylan’s postulate that all this unresolved tension derives from the ways in which people seek to use and exploit each other to achieve personal goals: withdrawal therefore allowsus to avoid the creation of a new set of relational tensionsto haunt us. Hence, this withdrawal is a matter of survival; without it we would continue to add to the

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tensions that threaten to crowd out any capacity to find peace in our old age. But this withdrawal also representsa possibly bitter defeat. Since so much of our lives are devoted to “winning out” in the competitive world of using other people to our own ends, withdrawal becomes an admission of our inability to continue the struggle.

As we grow older, we therefore become detached from theeveryday world (in which people are starting new relationships that will take years to work out) because we realize that we have neither the time nor the inclination toendure the potentially tortured process.

The second part of this proposition derives from the unfortunate fact that supportive relationships evolve out ofthe very same exploitative relationships that are the sourceof the discomfort we feel in old age. So, old people find themselves withdrawing from the rat race in order to focus their attention on the very relationships that have been theprinciple source of their agony. If something supportive and healing is going to be built, it much be built from the foundations – however shaky – that these old loves, family ties and friendships provide. And the construction process is fragile and uncertain, requiring as it does the creative cooperation and continuing commitment of all parties. Old age therefore involves daunting challenges with no guarantees of success.

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And this leads to the most challenging of Dylan’s propositions: that a successful old age is not dominated either by nostalgia or by a comforting circle of intimates, but by a sensual connection to the non-human world; one in which we find pleasure in the sights, sounds, smells, taste and touch of nature facilitated by a resolution of the humantensions that separate us from these pleasures in the courseof an active life.

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