New Book Details Living Well With Aging, Disability
‘Hope of the Crow’ offers compelling, insightful, and often humorous guide on how to navigate growing older
Barbara Arnold, photos by Andrea Paulseth
If you are looking for a book that is chock full of inspiring gems on every single one of its 428 pages, then get your hands on Hope of the Crow: Tales of Occupying Aging by Katherine Schneider, a lifelong activist and retired clinical psychologist in Eau Claire. Published on Aug. 14 during Schneider’s 70th year on Earth, the book features perspectives and insights on approaching aging and taking sight for granted – something Schneider knows very well, as someone who was born blind and continues to educate the world on what it means to conquer the world while blind.
Just as Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Eat Pray Love helped the recently divorced find meaning and realize they were not alone by sharing her story about traveling the globe alone after a tough divorce, Schneider’s book provides a compelling, insightful, and often humorous guide on how to navigate growing older in a society where anyone over the age of 40 is usually seen as invisible, and statistics tell us that half the people over age 65 will develop a disability. Having grown up with a disability, Schneider has much wisdom to share with the rest of us.
The book, which has a memoir-like quality, is a compilation of posts from her blog (www.kathiecomments.wordpress.com), which she started in 2012. Similar to Gilbert’s book, it has four parts: Work, Play, Love, and Pray. Pertinent posts from over various years are included in each category.
Hope of the Crow is available in paperback and Kindle formats from online retailers and in accessible format from www.bookshare.org.
