As I get older, I tend to think more about age than I once did. In our twenties and even thirties, old age seems so far away it seems irrelevant. By our forties, we begin noticing some slight changes in how well your body performs, but it's not a significant enough difference to interfere with daily life so it's easy to ignore. I am now in my fifties, and I am noticing even more changes that make life slightly more difficult, still. Contrary to Yukon Cornelius's famous line in the classic Christmas movie Rudolph, Bumbles don't bounce! We break smack-dab in two!
At 51, I can still do most things I used to do, but now I hurt things when I do them. Not long ago, I laid in the floor of my van with a vacuum hose cleaning underneath the seats. I was on my side with my head suspended slightly off the floor, looking under the seats as I cleaned.
Fast forward about 2 hours and you'll see me needing one of those neck braces that guy wore on The Brady Bunch when he falsely accused Mike of injuring him in an accident! It took me a couple of weeks to be able to turn my head normally! Fortunately, whatever I did healed on it's own without having to go to the doctor, but I worried I had messed up my neck permanently!
I have a dear friend, Sandra, who I think of as a second mom. She is 76 years old now, and she is one of the most amazing women I have ever had the privilege of knowing. She was a teacher all of her adult life, and she was one of those teachers who genuinely loved her students. Besides being super-smart, she was an amazing athlete. When I was in middle school, she played on softball teams and competed in track events, usually winning the ribbon or trophy. I thought that was pretty crazy because in my mind she was just so old to be doing that! Looking back, she would only have been around 37 years old then!!
She continued to compete all the way into her early 70's, still bringing home the prize most times. She ran track, jumped hurdles, and long jumped. That in itself is amazing enough, but what makes her success even more unique is that for about the last 10 years of her sports "career", she was battling Parkinson's Disease.
Sandra competing in a track event
As her disease progressed, she was forced to give up her love of sports to protect herself from serious injury. I know that had to be devastating for her, because sports were a huge part of her life and how she spent much of her time.
One day we were chatting and she started talking about how hard it is to see yourself age, and how differently you are treated when others see you as "old". She had went somewhere and was trying to talk to someone who sort of brushed her off, like they thought what she was saying was of no value. She said she felt invisible and irrelevant. It broke her heart. She cried while telling me of the encounter. This lady, this smart, amazing, lived-life-to-the-fullest lady, was being treated as though she had nothing to contribute!
After talking to her about that incident, I began noticing how younger people often tend to treat elders, and it turns out this kind of treatment seems fairly common! Even my own kids have made comments like, "that old lady over there..", or, "that old man..", when referring to an elderly person. We always tried to teach them to be respectful of elders, and they really are, but in paying closer attention I realized that most people say those kinds of things without even realizing that the tone in which they say them indicates that they are sort of just a fixture..not equal to the rest of us.
In reflection, I am trying to remember that these elders that we disregard day to day were the core of our society just a few years ago. They raised children, worked jobs, built homes and ran our churches, and most of that generation did it all with very little help or resources given to them. Most of them in our area were raised in very poor homes and got where they are by good old-fashioned hard work.
The older citizens in our community are a wealth of knowledge. They didn't have Google, they didn't have graphing calculators and they certainly didn't have computers to do all the thinking for them! They had to problem-solve and draw from their own life experiences to get things done.
Their bodies may have aged, they may not stand as tall or as confidently as they once did, but their years of experience should be a resource that young people should be seeking to tap into. Don't be fooled by the worn cover on the book. Sandra's body may not be able to run that marathon anymore, but she still possesses the knowledge of not just how to do it, but how to do it and win the gold!
There is still a lot to be learned from these great people who have "lived it". Look beyond the cover. Therein lies a fascinating tale.
Celebrating her 75th birthday
"'Stand up in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD."
"Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness."
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