Growing Too Old?

SAT., SEP. 6, 1997, 6:35 AM
FARM, STUDY

A Teaching given to you a few years back referred to you as one of the “young elderly”. With the passing of those years, with retirement, and with your closing in on 3 score and 10 plus 2 you come closer to being one of the “middle elderly”. The visit with your Dad, now coming up on 94, and the presence of Mabel with you, coming up 91… as comparisons… pushes you back toward the “young elderly” category.

Yes, o son, while your age can be quite specific, in years, months, and days, it also can be relative. What is “old” is a matter of comparison. In actual years you’re approaching the average age for death of males in your culture, and this certainly qualifies you as old. You are a grandfather 13 times, and Rivanna has been one of your college students… and Zack, the youngest, is an active 2 year old. This qualifies you as old.

Yet as you compare yourself with some of your parents’ generation, still living, you obviously are not as old as they are. So I suggest that you’re still “young elderly”, but certainly tip-toeing in on “middle elderly”. You can still run, but you don’t do so often or with the vigor that you showed, but a few years ago. You seldom run up the stairs, as was your bent until recently. You want to continue to be strong and able to do all the chores you do now, but you realize nothing can be done as fast as in earlier years.

Recall the two paradigms for aging. In one you remain active and energetic after retirement, continuing to teach as opportunities arise, volunteering for community service, getting up early, and “putting in a good days’ work”. In the other, you get up when you feel like it, and do only what you feel like doing… or what you can do. You can live a day with no tangible accomplishment and feel just fine.

You realize that you are somewhere between these poles. You want to still accomplish some tasks. You still feel guilty about not accomplishing, as you look at this study and at your office, as examples. The picture of your Dad, this summer, being able to accomplish very little and having increasing trouble in carrying on a conversation was not a pleasant one for you… as you imagined yourself as a comparable one of the “old elderly”.

Mabel, who is comparably inactive and in need of assistance, says it is “natural” to want to want to keep living, no matter what the conditions of life are. I continue to tell you that the passage across to Me and a spirit realm is a more “natural” aspect of the life process and need not be resisted. You have done it before. It is just another… and often better… form of living. As I see it, one of the characteristics of spiritual maturity is not only the acceptance of the end of an earth life, but actual anticipation of and preparation for the leaving of the old body. I say to you, don’t be one of those who hangs around the earth too long, as if life doesn’t continue… and even in a better form.

A few aches are yours to experience, but few to no real pains. You have a number of tasks that still are important. But you shall have to make decisions about how active you shall be, in relation to your profession, from which you now are emeritus. You didn’t teach too long, full-time. Be cautious about future opportunities… yet realize that there are some advantages in being old and experienced. Don’t be afraid to “fail”, and, still, don’t sully your reputation by trying to do what you no longer can.