Am I Old, Or What?

I have always thought of myself as young, active, and alert. Though not particularly athletic, I participated in various sports: canoeing, swimming, tennis (I won my division in my city’s tournament), baseball (as a Little Leaguer), basketball, racquetball, handball, and even college football (intramural flag football, that is). I was a lifeguard and swimming instructor. I took judo and karate (advancing to a yellow belt!). I tried a lot of sports, even though I wasn’t very good at most of them.

But those days are long gone. Now my sports consist of the 50 meter walker dash and popping wheelies in my wheelchair.

I have other indications of my advancing age. First, I am retired, and the government considers me as old enough to receive Social Security and Medicare. Second, a big indication is my chronic age-related health issues, such as kidney disease and cardiovascular concerns which led to me receiving a pacemaker. I’m not the spry young stud I used to be. And when I saw some bruises appear on my arms, my doctor called them “senile purpura.” That’s grounds for changing doctors.

But not all the indicators of my being old have to do with physical abilities or conditions. There are, of course, the images of an old man looking back at me from the mirror every morning.  But even beyond that, there are also the attitudes and values I have developed over a lifetime that quite frankly, belong to a time gone past. Even as a young man, I found I identified more with my parents and their generation than with my peers. While my fellow teens listened to rock music, I preferred classical music (from old records I bought with my mom at Goodwill). When I took my SATs, I arrived at the test in a 3-piece suit rather than the jeans everyone else was wearing. Yes, I was a weirdo.

What are my “older” values I have held to my entire life?

1. I believe in Jesus Christ my God, regardless of the popularity of the faith or the current antipathy toward it in our culture. I have never toyed with other religions or philosophies. It’s not that I have never fallen short (“For all have sinned and fall short . . .” Romans 3:23), but I have never doubted that God is real and Jesus is my Savior. My values and morals flow from that faith.

2. Although my musical tastes have widened since the early 1800s, I find most of current popular music unappealing. During my time as a YMCA youth director, I kept up with then-current music in order to relate to the youth I worked with, but since those days, I have become an old fogey.

3. Likewise with art. I much prefer the Old Masters, Renaissance and Reformation artists, and Grandma Moses (the latter should be a clue to which generation I identify with). I have been to modern art museums, but have yet to find much art in them. When an “artist” taped a banana to a museum wall that sold for millions of dollars, I would have preferred eating it. Give me daVinci’s Salvatore Mundi any day over  Picasso or Pollack; even though paintings reflect the artist’s perceptions and emotions more than a photograph, I admire the ability to craft art that is faithful to the actual subject being depicted.

4. My patriotism flows from a time when everyone in school said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag (the Stars and Stripes, that is). I learned to treat the flag with respect, and never considered burning one in protest. I grew up singing many patriotic songs, including: Columbia the Gem of the Ocean, the songs of the armed forces branches, America, America the Beautiful, God Bless America, Hail to the Chief (yes, there are words to it!) and the fourth verse of the Star Spangled Banner which reads:

Oh! Thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land,
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

5. My language is of a time past. On the one hand,I use archaic expressions (why abandon words that have valid meanings?) including “yonder,” “behold,” “brimstone,” “fourscore,” “fortnight,” forsooth,”  and “wench.”

On the other hand, I am appalled at how vulgar and coarse our  public discourse has become. While “F” bombs certainly predate my generation, they have become part of young people’s everyday vocabulary. Bodily functions and private parts are commonly discussed openly, when in my youth they were only discussed by my doctors and my dad (during “the talk”).

And as for using God or Jesus as curse words, I have always believed (and practiced) God’s command not to take his name in vain or to use his name in a curse (Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11, and Matthew 5:33-34). Yet many young people think nothing of cursing with God’s or Jesus’ name.

6. But the real marks of my becoming old are the following: I still use a checkbook, collect pennies and roll them in wrappers for the bank, write letters in cursive script, hoard actual books made of paper and ink (at least I gave up scrolls and cuneiform tablets!) I am a man of my times – though those times have passed.

So then, yes I am old. But that’s not a bad thing. Past generations used to honor and respect their elders. They looked to them for wisdom and knowledge. We were the Google of that day. No Artificial Intelligence, just real intelligence and the knowledge accumulated over decades of living.

Also,  the Bible speaks admirably of the old. Proverbs 16:31 says, “Gray hair is a crown of glory; it is gained in a righteous life.” Proverbs 20:29 says, “the splendor of old men is their gray hair.” (Nice to know I have plenty of splendor!) The first commandment with a promise, the Fourth, promises old age to those who honor their fathers and mothers. God says, “And I will still be carrying you when you are old. Your hair will turn gray, and I will still carry you. I made you, and I will carry you to safety” (Isaiah 46:4). Job 12:12 says, “Wisdom belongs to the aged, and understanding to the old.” and Job 32:7 adds, “Those who are older should speak, for wisdom comes with age.” Leviticus 19:32 commands us to “Rise in the presence of the aged and honor the elderly face-to-face.” Also, lest (another archaic word) we forget, Moses was 80 years old when he confronted pharaoh, and  that was just the beginning: he led Israel for another 40 years!

So, now that I admit the reality that I am old, how do I deal with it? Get some hair dye, wear a corset, get plastic surgery, and buy a red sports car? No, I will take solace in what God says about aging. And in the fact that the life expectancy for a man in the U.S. is 75.8 at birth; for those who reach my age, it is 86. So, I’m still have a ways to go!

But even as an old codger, let me look to the Lord even in my dotage (another archaic word), remembering Psalm 71:18-19, which proclaims, “Now that I am old and my hair is gray, don’t leave me, God. I must tell the next generation about your power and greatness.”

I thank God he has given me all the years he has, and look forward to the years still to come.

Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Ecclesiastes 7:10 “Never ask ‘Why does the past seem so much better than now?’  because this question does not come from wisdom.”