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I awoke the other night with a start from a dream that shook me to my bones. I dreamt an old friend visited me and asked me to remember him. He needn’t have worried, as he was a man I could never forget. His name was Lee. He was a gay man in a time of isolation and at least 30 years older than me.

In our culture aging is feared, maligned and older folks often marginalized. Consider the thousands of advertisements seen daily on television and social media touting products to reverse or prevent wrinkles, for grey and thinning hair, to reverse or slow down memory loss and a multitude of other illnesses and horrors associated with aging.

While the madness ensues and I am bouncing between tearfulness and anger daily, I decided to stop and take a look at human civilizations over the centuries. This round of authoritarianism, I found, was a replay from so many that came before it. I also ruminated on the chance of it rising again.