by Whitney Merrill

Eric Shapira reading from A New Wrinkle. Photo: Whitney Merrill.

I sit in front of a cozy fire on a foggy, rainy morning in Eric Shapira’s house in Montara, listening to him tell me how he came to write his book, A New Wrinkle: What I Learned from Older People Who Never Acted Their Age. As I listen, I cannot help but think that there are many people,   facing challenges in their lives, who would benefit immensely from sitting in my seat.

My eyes wander briefly about the room to Shapira’s own sculptures and paintings and I realize that Shapira’s book — his most recent artistic creation — has been crafted for a much wider audience: a whole generation. The book is about Shapira’s life and the wisdom that he received from the people in his life — many of them older — who taught him how to take advantage of a crisis and turn it into an opportunity. As he writes, “’A New Wrinkle’ means following a new line of experience or smiling a new smile about something you discover about yourself that may have been submerged all your life.” What I find immediately compelling about Shapira and his story is that he has found a “new smile” several times in his life and has found a way to share that process of discovery and teach it to others.

Mural by Ellen Joseph. Photo: Ellen Joseph.

One of Shapira’s first turning points occurred when he was 17 and in the hospital as a result of a car accident. His mother had given him some clay to work, and with some encouragement from her and guidance from one of the doctors, he created his first sculpture. It sits in his office now, a small sculpture encased in glass, perhaps to remind him of that first “wrinkle.” As he guides me around his house, showing me his sculptures and paintings, it becomes clear that this house and this life would have been very different without that experience and the doctor who helped him to heal with both medicine and art. Shapira has spent his life in a similar service to others and as he reminds me, “We all have something to give in order to repay the world for the space that we occupy.”

In his gerontology practice, Shapira teaches his clients how to break the cycle of depression when a crisis arises; they learn how to re-invent themselves at any point in their lives, no matter what their circumstances. “There is a difference between grieving and depression,” Shapira says, explaining that grieving is a natural process that occurs in response to a loss; depression can occur if we let ourselves get stuck in that loss. It often requires some motivation and guidance to break this cycle, but this is where discovery and learning occurs. In his book he writes, “Possibly the discovery was gleaned from other’s experience, and then, in the middle of something, there it is, a mind burp that says ‘Ah ha!’”

Shapira said he had many reasons for writing the book — including therapy, catharsis, and serving others — but in the end it is clear that this is uncharted territory. This is not his dentistry practice or sculpture or painting but it is expression, art and healing all the same – just in a different form.

Photo: Whitney Merrill.

Part 2 of this series will follow in February as I explore more of Shapira’s  gerontology practice and share what some of his clients are learning from his teachings.