FReeper Canteen ~ Sunday Chapel ~ REFLECTIONS ON GROWING OLD(ER) ~ 28 October 2018

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[Kathy in Alaska]

 

 

 

REFLECTIONS ON GROWING OLD(ER)

Someone once said that we are now living in the age of age. In fact, there are more old people alive today than at any time in history. There are, today, more people over 65 in the United States than the entire population of Canada. Faced with these figures, and faced with the fact that you will someday be, if you are not already, in the category of the aged, the old, or the elderly, how do you, or will you, look upon the final chapter of your book of life?

Some look at age philosophically, like Jack Benny, who said: "Age is a matter of mind; if you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Some look at age sarcastically, like the wisecracker who said: "You know you are getting old when the gleam in your eye is from the sun hitting your bifocals." Or, as Bob Hope said on his 80th birthday: "You know you're old when the candles cost more than the cake." Some view age evasively, like the elderly couple in California who were stopped for speeding and when asked where they were going in such a hurry, replied, "We're escaping from Leisure World." Some look at age shrewdly, like Agatha Christie, who quipped that she married an archaeologist so that the older she became, the more he would appreciate her.

But what about scripturally? In the Book of Genesis, Abraham made a comment about his advanced years and how his faith was strong even at 99 years of age. St. Paul even once wrote of Abraham that, "He (Abraham) did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old . . ." While his body weakened, his soul grew stronger. St. Paul wrote: " ... he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God." (Romans 4:20)

Abraham didn't need any White House Conference on Aging to figure out how to handle the afternoon of his life. His senior years were the "Sabbath" of his soul, not to rest but to refresh. They were the garnering years, alive with rich possibilities for self-realization, a time of harvest, abundant and manifold. With the patriarch as a paradigm, St. Paul intimates that age is a time of spiritual enrichment, of growing close to God. The aging saint has no time for regrets. Age is the country he's always wanted to reach. The saints go marching in! It's the land of freedom: freedom from the striving of making a living, freedom from the strains of child-raising, freedom from the real, or imaginary, necessities of social acceptance, freedom from defining one's own status by occupation, income, and social approval, freedom to live where you want, do what you want, go where you want; and yes, freedom at last, to wear shoes for comfort instead of for style. Age, a la Abraham, is a time to sift for nuggets of meaning, to make psychic gains, and experience spiritual satisfaction, to add life to years, not just years to life. To try to link faith and age in any other non-productive way is to have as a motto: "In God We Rust."

LCDR Jeffrey Nordhaus, CHC, USN

 

[oldplayer]

Thanks, Kathy, for the blessing. As to doing a good job combining conflicting life styles, in some ways it is just stubbornness, I am afraid.

[radu]

I’m hearing that a mild winter is expected. I saw a wooly worm on the windowsill outside the kitchen window the other night and it’s coloring said the same thing.
We’ll have to wait and see, I reckon. And hope! LOL!

Poor kittehs. Mean Midnight being a bully. They outnumber him and need to just crowd him out at the food dish. But they have to figure that out first. :-)

[radu]

WOOHOO! Ya snagged it!

I was watching a movie and didn’t realize it until now. LOL

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu, and a Blessed Lord’s Day to you and yours.

Did you have fun at the museum today? Tours?

Possible snow tonight...not ready; still too much rain.

[radu]

Hey there, Kathy.

EEEEEEK!!!!! Snow?? I feel for ya!!! That’s not going to be fun.

It was a little wet here this morning, and the wind made the mid-40s temps a misery. But a few brave souls got out to check out the museum any way.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Welcome to the Canteen, Farmer Dean, and a Blessed Lord’s Day to you and yours.

[Kathy in Alaska]

My favorite crosses...thanks, Mac.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Vacuuming and a heroes thread and then the visit...I’m good to go.

[luvie]

I’m thinkin’ they’ll work it out. Ghost trumps ‘em all. LOL!

I hope your wooly worm is right. I haven’t seen one of those in years. They build nasty webby tents in the trees that kill them, and they haven’t been around a very long time. Thank goodness!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Luv, and a Blessed Lord’s Day to you and yours.

Thank you for the hymns.

[radu]

Sounds like you’re all set! I hope it doesn’t snow and make it hard for Ashlie to get around. She doesn’t drive in it very much in TX. 8-0

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening/morning, lightman, and a Blessed Lord’s Day to you and yours.

Time marches on....

The casket couple...interesting pre-planning and storage of assets. What a conversation starter.

[radu]

I gather he hasn’t tried to push Ghost away yet? Seems like he already would have been popped upside the head if he had. LOL! Ghost doesn’t seem like one to put up with that nonsense.

That was the first wooly worm I’ve ever seen in person. There are plenty of them on the mountains, apparently, but not down here. I would have missed that one if Percy and Roxy hadn’t been staring at it intently.
We don’t need any more things that build webby tents in the trees. There are enough tent worms already.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Luv.....#50!!

[Kathy in Alaska]

That she does not....LOL!

I don’t know anything about her schedule up here, except “family issues” and her support.

[radu]

Uh oh, isn’t that why she was up there the last time? I hope everything smoothes out.

On the bright side, y’all get a chance to visit a little.

[luvie]

You’re welcome! Hope you have a blessed and quiet Sunday, too! I hope you didn’t have homework, but it’s almost a given that you did.

[luvie]

Nobody messes with Ghost. Except Li’l Bit does sometimes. She’s the MOM after all! They will just have to get their pecking order sorted out.

Oh...well we have always called tent worms woolly worms. I am glad not to see them around here! What do your woolly worms become?

[E.G.C.]

A very pleasant good Sunday morning and ((HUGS)) to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your service to our country.

How's everyone this morning?

[radu]

LOL! The mommas always rule. I reckon Ghost figured that out a while back.

There's a big difference between wolly worms and tent worms.