Seventy-eight years rub off a lot of jaggedy edges. There are losses, don’t get me wrong, but they’re mostly physical. Psychologically, on the whole it’s great!
For eight years (longest traditional job I ever held) I was a campus minister at Fordham at Lincoln Center. (Not “big” Fordham in the Bronx at Rose Hill, they never would have hired the motley likes of me.) Working with Jesuit and other priests at this “mission territory” institution was an amazing experience. I got to give homilies at daily Mass (does it matter whether or not they were formally called that? I don’t think so; they were what they were and everybody knew it), and some of the Jesuits encouraged me to step out and do all kinds of pastoral things, where I was inclined to hold back (that’s what a childhood as an orthodox Jew will do for some women). It’s all been interesting.
I don’t usually suggest this on my blogs, but perhaps if you can rustle up a copy somewhere in the NY Public Library system, you might enjoy reading Convergence, my spiritual memoir. Adventure comes in many guises, that’s my experience, and the book is the story of my biggest adventure.