Snail Mail:
2000 Mallory Lane, Suite 130-229, Franklin, Tennessee 37067
Search Results for: label/aging
Random Thoughts On Getting Older (or “happy birthday to me”)
Turning 50 – what changes?
In case I didn’t remember that tomorrow is my birthday, Facebook came up with an app that makes sure I and a host of well-wishers – along with a few trash talkers – are very aware that I am about to have another number added to my age. Last year was the big five-oh so this one shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Right? But then again, it is a full year later, so maybe this and each subsequent birthday is a much greater accomplishment and deserving of more fanfare.
I started thinking about writing this blog on getting older last week and came up with a really clever title and approach to the topic, but since I didn’t write anything down I can’t remember what I had in mind. So while I’m thinking about it now, here are a few random thoughts on the aging process that just might reflect what is coming your way a good ways down the road, what you’re currently experiencing as a fellow 50-something or what things you remember (but might have forgotten) that are now in your rear view mirror.
1. Oatmeal and prescription meds are big topics of discussion. And I’m not talking idle chatter. I’m talking the fodder of deep and enthralling conversations.
2. I now routinely call each of my children by one of their sibling’s name. Despite rolled eyes or vacant stare, I don’t think they mind that much and maybe find it mildly amusing. At least until I refer to one of the boys by one of the girl’s names or vice versa.
3. Retirement is on my mind. It was a couple years ago, too. But back then I was thinking I might do it some day. After watching my accounts and home equity go the wrong direction, I now think more about not retiring some day.
4. Stretchy fabrics are underrated. Particularly fabric swatches that circle the waist.
5. The kids think Amy and I talk too loud. I think they’re crazy. I can barely hear a word Amy is saying.
6. They – whoever ‘they’ are – are right; ‘old’ is a relative term. Even if a few things hurt that I didn’t know existed in my 30’s, I really don’t feel old at almost-51. More to the point, in my copious research for this piece, I discovered ‘old’ refers to people who are five or more years advanced in age than I am. Not only that, ‘old’ is on a sliding scale and will continue to be five years out from where I am in future years.
7. Fiber is mysterious and confusing. When I think of fiber, I think of something substantial and solid. Now they (there ‘they’ are again) sell fiber – with extra roughage thrown in for good measure – in little gel caps. I don’t know what this has to do with anything but I could go on about fiber all day!
8. Many parents of young children look like children themselves. This observation isn’t actually new. It came to me 10 years ago when I took my oldest child to college and my youngest child to kindergarten. The same week.
9. The world really does need the wisdom that comes from age and experience. This wisdom is treasure to be cherished and honored. I don’t know how I ever thought that youth and energy were what made big things happen.
10. A lot of my friends in my age range are looking older these days. (This observation is only intended for certain trash talkers – and you know who you are.)
Aging. It’s no laughing matter. It’s something we all must face. And on the positive side, it certainly beats the alternative unless, of course, you are one of the drafters of Obama’s health care plan. So I’m going to get very serious now.
But first I think I’ll take an afternoon nap!
Share this:
How the Irish Saved Civilization
How The Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill. Anchor Books.
In 406 A.D the Rhine River froze solid – and the barbarians crossed this temporary bridge to strike one of the final blows to a lazy, corrupt, and aging empire. When Alaric, king of the Visigoths, showed up at Rome’s gates in 410 A.D., the citizens still didn’t know the end was at hand. Unable to defend themselves – it was a lot of effort after all – they negotiated a “sack” to spare the city from bloodshed:
“So they kept their lives, most of them. But sooner or later they or their progeny lost almost everything else: titles, prosperity, way of life, learning: especially learning. A world in chaos is not a world in which books are copied and libraries are maintained. It is not the world where learned men have the leisure to become more learned.”
While working through Gibbons’ The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for my nightstand reading, I realized I needed a shorter “boost” to keep going, so I decided to reread Thomas Cahill’s much heralded work that shows the disappearance of learning, scholarship, and culture from the European Continent from the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagne. All the great works of western civilization might have been lost were it not for the fact that as the Continent became illiterate, one small “unconquered people” at the edge of the Empire were just learning to read and write – with gusto. As peaceful Rome turned to chaos, chaotic Ireland grew more peaceful – the key word being more. Following the lead of their eclectic and passionately spiritual patron saint, St. Patrick, and his spiritual son, Columcille, they built centers of learning that not only drew visitors from the Continent, but sent a wave of missionaries that restored and returned the Greek, Roman, Christian and even “pagan” classic literature to Europe.
Just a fun note or two on Patrick. He was not actually Irish. He was a Briton – “almost Roman” – that was captured, enslaved and brutally mistreated by the Irish as a young boy. Following a vision from God – like King David he was a shepherd and solitude and deprivation turned his thoughts toward God – he escaped Ireland and received a seminary education. But his heart beat for Ireland. In one of history’s unique footnotes, he became the first missionary since the Apostolic Age.
Also, he didn’t drive snakes out of Ireland, but he did curb the Irish passion for violence. Curbing the Irish passions for hard drink and, um, ah, for a liberated sense of sexuality, perhaps didn’t go quite as well for Patrick. One of the reasons Patricus was so well received by his one-time tormentors was that he may have been the only man to stand up to the Irish of his century and say, “I am not afraid of you, I fear only God.” That they liked and respected.
I’m only one in a long line of many to recommend Cahill’s short, poetic, sometimes rambling, but always charming narrative that brings history to life.
