"Growing” Old; Growing Aware

 I shall say no more except that I already told you many years ago of the alternative journey you are now called to take – a journey which does indeed lie on the slopes of that mountain but holds no fame or glory for you; only loneliness and sadness.  The choice is yours.  Will you deceive yourself as Dante’s Ulysses did in a sin far worse than the deceit of the Trojan horse? (Old Age 12)

 These words of the poet Teiresias, the blind poet, imagined by Helen Luke, addressed to Odysseus resting from his toils and trials of youth.  They sum up the choice which all of us must make when we face the journey into old age.  Are we truly to continue “grow old”—to continue to grow in psychic maturity or will we simply succumb to the aging process—sinking, perhaps not gently, into that perceived, not so sweet night, fighting that inevitable journey every step of the way.

As we baby boomers continue our journey into old age, the question of “growing old” or succumbing to the aging process becomes one which is looming larger in our lives.  I originally explored the questions raised by Helen Luke in her work, Old Age, about ten years ago when I was approaching the traditional retirement age of 65 (although I had retired for the first time quite a while before that).  Although, at the time, that age seemed to be appropriate for exploring the issue, I have realized that I was not truly able to appreciate the journey into old age that lies ahead of me.  I am beginning to appreciate the wisdom of Helen Lukes words to a much greater extent than when I began that exploration.  The question of whether I will “grow old” or succumb to the aging process is one that stares me in the face every morning when I regard the old man who stares back at me in the mirror.  It is one that I struggle with as I decide what I will do each day.  

Richard Rohr addressed this in one of his Daily Meditations this week:

It’s true that the second half of life is a certain kind of weight to carry, but no other way of being makes sense or gives us the deep satisfaction our soul now demands and even enjoys. This new and deeper passion is what people mean when they say, “I must do this particular thing or my life will not make sense” or “It is no longer a choice.” Our life and our delivery system are now one, whereas before, our life and our occupation seemed like two different things. Our concern is not so much to have what we love anymore, but to love what we have—right now. This is a monumental change from the first half of life, so much so that it is almost the litmus test of whether we are in the second half of life at all… Aging can be either a life of nostalgia or a wholehearted engagement with the future.  (Richard Rohr)

 I believe that what we face in our journey into old age is call to be aware, aware that we are created in the image of God for a purpose that can only be revealed throughout our lives.  The purpose is different at differ times in our life and can only be revealed if and when we are awake of the path that inner voice is calling us to follow.

May we be blessed to hear that voice on our journey.

 

 

Getting off the Hamster Wheel

Last week, one of the Daily Meditations from Richard Rohr really resonated with me:

We are not hamsters on a wheel, waiting to fall into the cedar shavings at the bottom of the cage. We are seekers of light and life, bearers of shadows and burdens. We are struggling to journey together toward moral fulfillment. We are learning to embrace the unfathomable darkness where God dwells with enthusiasm that equals our love of light. 

Actually, it was the first sentence in that paragraph that particularly resonated with me, “We are not hamsters on a wheel, waiting to fall into the cedar shavings at the bottom of the cage.”  Unfortunately, we are to a greater or lesser extent, just that.  We often go through life without reflection or contemplation and without even recognizing that we are on a hamster wheel.  We accept where we are in life without much consideration or question of where we are or where we are going; are we seekers of light and life as Richard Rohr proposes or do we just try to make it through the day to day routine and challenges that often fills our days?

Speaking from experience, it is very easy to get into a routine and follow that routine without necessarily questioning if that is what I could or should be doing.  Routines are good in that they allow you to get through you days and weeks and more without having to expend energy to think or reflect on what you are doing.  The Corona Pandemic, to a great extent, forced us get off our regular hamster wheels and decide how we were going to approach life in the corona pandemic world.  In many cases this amounted to finding a new wheel to mount and begin to ride again.  In other case, unfortunately, it meant life-changing decisions that had to be made – sometimes with tragic consequences. 

I do believe that assertion by Richard Rohr; we are created to be seekers of light and life, bearers of shadows and burdens.  We can only do that by trying, as best we can, to live a life that is conscious of who we are and why we do the things we do and being the people God created us to be.  This is what makes us human.  We are called to reflect on what we are doing and why we are doing it.  That is no easy task and can require that we get off the hamster wheel or at least stop the spinning from time to time and step outside our routine existence. 

This is what Jesus’s parables attempt to do.  The reality of God’s world is opened up in new ways.  The hamster wheels of the people he was talking to was brought into focus and questioned.  Is that the way I should be treating others; who is my neighbour; do I walk by the person who has been mugged and is lying at the side of the road even if he or she is not worthy of my attention, what is truly important in my life?

How do we see “the other” as a fellow human being and act and react as a human being?  I want to close by applying this to an issue that is currently trending on social media – the Black lives Matter movement that has been reinvigorated during the corona pandemic.   The response by some is that all lives matter and of course as Christians we all called to believe that all lives matter.  But what does it mean to stop the wheel spinning in this issue?  For me, the cry of Black lives Matter has never been a statement that only black lives matter or that other lives don’t matter.  It is a cry that black lives and lives of indigenous people - indeed lives of those who are “the other” also matter.  However, in many ways and in many situations that they have meant less than lives of white people or perhaps people of wealth and influence.

Let us be seekers of light and life and bearers of shadows and burdens on our journey.  

Blessings to you on that journey.