I Love Life!

Getting older is now my official job.  The main goal of the job is to continue getting older.  In a great many ways it is a really fun.  I can say anything I want because most people over look you when you get old.  I can learn all kinds of things I never had time study before.  Recalling memories and retelling the old stories is better now because I have historical  impact when I speak.  


I can't be fired, and  I can't be demoted, but the scary part of this is that now I am finally in an unassailable position, time is running out.  


I have diabetes which is causing me some neuropathy (nerve damage--it makes my feet hurt).  I have lost some of my vision.  If I say you don't look as good as you used to, its because I can't see you that well.  My balance is getting worse--blame the neuropathy.  All the ads on TV promise me I will fall and not be able to get up.  My memory is unreliable, and everybody I know has the same problem.  I wonder if it is contagious.


I call this blog Getting Older--Getting Better because in some ways I really am, but in other ways I'm not.  My brain and my global understanding of the world and people is more acute and more astute than it has ever been before.  But let's face it, folks, I need to make my mark quick, because the clock is winding down.  I've had a good run and a lot of fun.  This is not good-bye, and just keep it in mind--it ain't over, till it's over.

Are You Off Your Rocker?

Betty White is one of the most enduring and endearing stars on TV.  She romps with three other stellar beauties on Hot in Cleveland, but now she has come out in another roaringly funny show called Off Their Rockers.  I have enjoyed this show tremendously because of my interest in the whole game of getting old.

One of the many negative rumors about old age is you lose your sense of humor.  The gang in Off Their Rockers haven't lost theirs and they inspire me to get in the act.  Maybe I can get a little bit outrageous, too.  Maybe not to the extent they do--I could get arrested, and they probably have someone to fix that for them.  


But really, folks, don't leave you sense of humor at the door when you get old.  It's hard enough in this arena to enjoy life, but you can't do it without being able to laugh at yourself and others.  When I worked at the prison, I sometimes taught a class for fellow employees with a focus on how to look at life through laughter.  Prison is a pretty harsh environment.  To get through the experience, being able to laugh was important for both the employees and the inmates. 


One way to reframe events so that you can endure them is to think about them as if Robin Williams or Betty White was the star of your movie.  How would they play it so that it's funny instead of painful?  How will you tell it next year so that you see the humor instead of the anger or fear?  A sense of humor, like butter, helps everything.

A New Crop of Kites

I started making a new crops of kites on Sunday.  I need to make forty or fifty by next month.  I hope by the time I need them it's not already into the windless summer temperatures that make kite flying not so much fun.


The Youth Group at a church I love is going to have a picnic and day of fun as an evangelistic tool to invite new people.  I am praying for the kites to be an adventure for the kids and adults.  I also want to share the adventure of kiting.  In the process, I will get to deliver an object lesson about how a kite operates.  The kite flies because the wind hits the flat surface and pushes down across the face of the kite.  The downward force pushes the kite up.  


It is important to remember that the wind is the power of the kite, but the string holds the kite facing the wind.  We are like that too.  We rise on the power we cannot see, but only feel, but we have to have a good connection to the one in control or we'll wind up in a tree or the fence.  The Holy Spirit gives us power to rise up, but without a firm connection, we fall into disaster.

I'm old; I know about disaster.  Firm connections are vital to a good life.