Elderly
By Rob Infantino
To be old: on in years, geezer, senior citizen, antique, old timer, ancient. Sage, master, patriarch/matriarch, wise one, learned, experienced, knowing one. The short and sometime sarcastic description can go on. Who are these people that we are becoming?
I have seen some old people in their twenties; they are crotchety, complaining, and done with their life before they have really started. So, does being old really have to do with age? Some children I have known have insight way beyond their years. I hope they still find time to be children.
Being old is a collection of time, yours and others. I consider many of the older people I know to be walking libraries. Think of the best library you know, and there are some impressive ones. Imagine that entire building of compiled information, in a single mind. Add to that the ability of interaction with this grand computer, life. Take from the shelf the book titled, “Life from 1910 to 2010.”
A number of people have shown being old is not being worn out. To the contrary, I’m sure it was a challenge for younger associates to keep up with them. One such a person was reared in the royal court and prepared for leading the nation that dominated the world… until, when he was forty and he murdered a slave driver. The next forty years were spent in seclusion in a distant land being prepared for what was the real purpose of his life. The last forty years were spent delivering who he came to know as his people from the nation he was brought up to lead. Unfortunately, those last forty years were in the desert, and he didn’t accompany his people to their destination. Moses still walked away at 120 years old, in strength, to his death.
Mother Teresa. How could you not love Mother Teresa? I include this in its entirety because it is a lifelong accrual of truths this woman found and applied. It was on a sign on the wall of her children’s home in Calcutta.
ANYWAY
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered,
LOVE THEM ANYWAY
If you do good, people will accuse you of
selfish, ulterior motives,
DO GOOD ANYWAY
If you are successful,
you win false friends and true enemies,
SUCCEED ANYWAY
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
DO GOOD ANYWAY
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY
What you spent years building may be
destroyed overnight,
BUILD ANYWAY
People really need help
but may attack you if you help them,
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY
Give the world the best you have
And you’ll get kicked in the teeth,
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU’VE GOT ANYWAY.
(from Paradoxical People website)
My Uncle Joe was in World War Two; he was the youngest of the brothers when he left, the oldest when he returned. He had not spoken to me of the war until I had already enlisted in the Air Force and returned home on leave some time later. The story he told was interesting yet comical. He was in the Pacific Arena fighting the Japanese. The battle lines often shifted, were close and undefined. Uncle Joe and another fellow were in a truck, and they drove into an encampment… to their surprise, it was a Japanese camp. Upon recognizing where they were, they simply circled and drove out without a shot being fired. There were many stories to be told, but this library was very select and mostly reserved.
Others are to be noted, and even the fictitious are of consequent age: Yoda, old Ben Kenobi, Mr. Miyagi of the Karate Kid. What Chinese Master have you seen portrayed that didn’t have a Fu Manchu of at least 75 years growth? Try to take him down, you will touch only shadow, grasshopper.
The definition for being elderly has already begun to be written as you are changing. It is your point of reference that is different from anyone else’s. For one person, it’s having a beautiful wife and a wonderful three-year-old daughter. For another it is in the statement, “I’ve skied the best slopes of the states and have seen things some people will never see in their entire life.” And for this one, “I am getting to know my father for the first time after some thirty years, and I think I’m getting to know myself.”
I went to the Grand Canyon when I was twenty-two. No photo or film will ever convey the awesome beauty of that creation. The Colorado River is at the bottom. I walked down, (actually vertical by one mile and seven miles descending) until I arrived at what is called Pleasant Plateau. I looked over the edge to see the Colorado River below, still only a squiggle of a line.
Some of you have just arrived at Pleasant Plateau. You can look up to where you walked from, and it looks daunting and magnificent at the same time. And you can look down to the river and the depth of the canyon that is daunting and magnificent as well. The river where we are all going. Again, this is perspective. The river can represent different things to different people. The closer I get to it, the more prepared I feel and ready for the next adventure it takes me to. I can only imagine what it is like to ride the Colorado, but I am going to do that one day, and so are you.
Rob wrote this as a definition essay in Deborah Straw’s English Composition I class last semester.
