Age

My grandmother use to say, “You’re as old as you feel.”
My father use to say, “Gettin’ old ain’t for sissies!”

I guess by the time we start considering sayings like these, we must think that age is creeping up on us. I wasn’t thinking about it too much until a local younger woman came up to me the other day and said, “How do you do it? You stay so young looking when you’re so much older than me.”

“Hmmm….,” I’m thinking. “Did she really mean for it to come out that way?”

She continued, “I mean you must be at least my mother’s age and she looks terrible!”

“Yep, she meant it that way.”

This younger woman went on and on, until at last I thought I’d had enough of it. So I said, “Ya know what? I’m sort of amazed that you have all this energy to critique your mother and me. I’d think instead you’d be taking notes on what we’re doing; ’cause one day in the not too distant future you will be me, or your mother. Nice to see.” I smiled and excused myself.

So now I’m thinking about age. Blast. Not like one can avoid it, but I think it’s the way we view it. And, when I’m wondering how to view a thing, I often start with Webster. There are some interesting ways of describing age and as I read it all, I related to it in various ways.

Age: Cumulative process of breakage.
(Does this refer to broken bones? Does this mean the breaking down of molecular structure? Oh, this can’t be good… I feel older.)

Age: The part of an existence extending from a beginning to any given time.
(Well that’s not much better, is it? You were young and now you’re old?)

Age: One of the stages of life.
(I would have liked this one better if it had come first… especially before the one about my molecular structure breaking down!)

Age: A period in time in prehistory characterized by the use of artifacts made from a distinctive material.
(And please don’t say flesh and bones or go look in a mirror! Now that one was just not nice at all.)

What happened to the adage, “Aged to perfection?” I believe we are like fine wine, we season ourselves with life and become a deliciously robust flavor that everyone wants, but few can afford. We have value! I like this much better. We spend a lifetime learning things, growing, changing for the better (we hope, and I believe it is true), perfecting a craft, and teaching one another (and yes, we are all of us teaching at some point in our lives with or without a classroom). We go to school, forget half of it, remember it again when suddenly it becomes important. Our lives, and we in them, rotate constantly into a new thing. I see all of this as being a terrific opportunity to continually become better.

One example of that would be Moses, who after a life of learning in an Egyptian leader’s castle and community, left to wander the desert where he married and thought he’d just settle down and be and then die. But at age 80, God came for him and gave him the great commission to take the Jewish people to the Promised Land! There are many lessons one can take from this story in history, not the least of which is staying motivated and active… he lived to be 120 years of age!

Here’s another. A great mentor of mine lived a very active life. He had a beautiful enthusiastic way about him that was infectious. He motivated people to work when they wanted to sit; he lifted them when they wanted to fall down. He made them see that life is to be productive and moving, that the mind and the body should work together helping each to be active. Go! Be! When he reached his senior years, he continued to give back to society around him, both to family and to friends. A severe stroke took his ability to communicate as well as he would have liked. As I spoke with him on the phone shortly before he died, I noticed that neither was his spirit defiled by sadness, nor his countenance discouraged by his dilemma. I admired him more than ever on that day. He passed from this life, a young man. Dr. Bill Boast.

From these examples, from my own knowledge of life, from the words of the great prophets, I believe that one makes a collective decision to be either “old,” or to accept “age” as the grace that it is. The latter allows us to continue with a strong being and happiness. It is a choice, and not a destination.

May you feel the blessings of wisdom, and the pleasure of caring for others that keeps us all young!

Best… Carolyn Thomas Temple