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** spoiler alert ** In reading Still Here, I could not help but think that the universe presents us with opportunities to learn, grow, and change, at the precise moment we need it. Sometimes it is via the discovery of a book (like this one) or the ego crushing realizations that we are not in absolute control. For Ram Dass, his opportunity came when he was writing a book on aging, how to embrace it and the changes it brings, including death. He was near completion but having a difficult time with the last chapter. Then came a stroke (where he nearly died himself), and everything he had imagined or experienced from the outside became his own path: illuminated via paralysis, physical pain, the loss of words and the slowing of his speech, and, ultimately, the loss of his independence. The book took on a whole new meaning because he became an "incarnation of wisdom" rather than a "wise elder."
I really appreciated the book's honest approach to this life and these bodies that eventually fade. As Jim Morrison famously sang, "No one here gets out alive." Why deny that? Why also deny that for most illnesses, we are never truly cured, only healed. Our bodies and minds rarely go back to precisely what they were before. His aphasia will likely never fade, nor will he ever play golf or be able to drive again. This need not be soul crushing. Aging, illness, and the changing of roles take away the distractions of our ego and bring us closer to all that is precious in life. "That's the ultimate in healing - "making whole" - because there's no longer anything left out, including the sickness."
With the help of this book, I can see ever more clearly that change (big and small) can be as natural as breathing, something to be embraced and experienced fully rather than feared. Ride the roller coaster, but like a child - with wonder, anticipation, and exhilaration, the cherished help of friends (and good doctors), closing in on the divine.