Does Fairness Count?

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955. Deutsch: Winston Churchill, 1940 bis 1945 sowie 1951 bis 1955 Premier des Vereinigten Königreichs und Literaturnobelpreisträger des Jahres 1953. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”

                      Winston Churchill
                                                                  The longer I live the more I realize that fairness is not a measure of reality or truth. The world is not "fair." Maybe our aim should change to justice or, better yet, righteousness. Fairness has not served well as a standard for behavior, legislation, or even equality. God does not deal in fairness.

Fairness is a subjective quality. We claim foul and call the game unfair when one player or one team breaks the rules, but life is not like the game: In life not everybody gets the same chance, and some enter life with a disavantage. Intelligence, physical ability, guile, and grace seem to be distrubuted without regard to fairness. Indeed, these factors give some of us a great a step up in the world.
Some of us are handsome, and some are quick-witted. Either attribute can fit a person for success in one arena, but it is not fair when all the players don't have the same opportunity.

Like I said, life is not fair. Our demand that we make life fair is foolish. We don't have the resources to create a fair society or environment. I don't know that God even recognizes our concept of fairness. Some of us are brilliant, but don't have honor while some love with intensity, but lack integrity. The factors don't balance the scales. either. 

Is there an answer? No! God grants grace, and we are charged with making the best of the situation. Our drive in education is an attempt to maximize our talents to benefit our outcome. We need resources to fill our needs, and the skills we perfect help us fill them, but is it fair? Sick people need more accommodation from the  society at large to survive. Somebody has to help them meet their needs. People who plunder society disrupt distribution of food and necessities--we call them criminals. They are unfair players in life, and seek an unfair advantage, and the rest of us suffer for their actions.

I don't have an answer. Fairness is not achievable. I return to God's standard and look at righteousness as the measure of behavior. Justice is not much better than fairness when human wisdom becomes the vehicle for delivering it, so my best plan is measure myself by God's standard of righteousness and live in peace not judging others but submitting myself daily to God.

  

Interests of the Older Set

Getting older doesn't mean I've lost interest in things I did when I was young. I see lots of ads directed at older people that convince me I'm not lining up with the rest of my generation, or, maybe, the advertising world doesn't know us as well as they thought.

I do enjoy things that belong to a younger stage of life. I love to fly kites. Sometimes I even like to make them. I like to try new designs and teach others to enjoy them, too. My life-long fear of mathematics even yielded to getting older. I found and used the formula that lets me figure out how strong a wind a specific kite requires.

The one thing I cook with some expertise is bread. My love of bread comes from my childhood. I loved the aroma of bread baking. I started baking bread when I was first married. Sometime along the way, I started looking for different recipes and interesting shapes.  Now I like to look for shapes and ingredients that have special cultural or regional meaning. Kolache from Poland and other Eastern European countries and Pan de Muerto from Mexico, and Challah from Israel. 

My behavior in regard to getting older reveals neither an abandonment of interests from a younger age nor weariness with the subject matter. I do still like to interact with kites and bread, but  always with deeper and more interesting parameters. I do sometimes take up a new subject: A couple of years ago, I made a necklace , but I decided that bead work was not my best thing. I'm not much on playing Bridge or Forty Two. And contrary to the opinion of advertisers on TV, I don't look at match-making by on-line businesses as the answer to loneliness in my old age. It seems much more likely that the businesses are interested in making money, not making love. 

If you are getting older, find the interests that move and thrill you. Explore them in detail and find the excitement you crave. Your old age can be as challenging or rewarding as you choose.

Does Getting Old Hurt?

Occasionally I remember a stray thought from my childhood and it comes back to haunt me. "How does old age feel? Does it hurt?" I wondered about these things when I saw my elderly relatives struggle with physical feats that had become difficult. 

My question was prompted by the often verbalized opinion by adults that any pain a kid experiences is a growing pain. It made sense to me that if adults said kids had growing pains then getting old should be painful, too.

Now I am learning a new take on pain in relation to age. Getting old isn't painful by itself, but some diseases and conditions that accompany old age may do it. As a matter of fact, I rather enjoy the fact that I have lived a long time. But let's face the tough facts: tasks get more difficult as we age, healing is slower, reaction time is slower, and cell loss accelerates.  The only defense against the toll age takes is exercise. The doctor may call it rehab, but this is the place where pain really takes control. 

The goal seems to be to push your physical exertion to the outer limits. When my husband was advised to do exercise to improve his functioning, he refused because it hurt. I can see the logic of  rehab, but I'm not much better than my husband in the practice of it. Mostly I find it boring. I'd much rather read or surf he net or write a letter. I'd rather do almost anything than workout.  The last time I walked to exercise, I broke my foot. Events like that tend to reduce my efforts. Maybe I'll just get old and deal with it.

Grandchildren Are Grand

One benefit and joy of growing older is the ability to reflect on my life and remember how I came through the ages and stages of growing up. I spent last weekend with my daughter and her husband and two children. It was wonderful! I planned the trip around Katy's performance in the February recital of her dance class. Katy is in the youngest group and she only participated in one dance. It was a tap number and she was on the back row, but she was great. (This is a grandmother praising her, you understand.) 

I asked Shania why she never wanted to learn to dance. She said simply, "It's just not my thing." Good enough. Her thing was running for presidnecy of the BPA in her school. This year she surrendered the position to a new person and is now running for a state office in the organization. I am very proud of her accomplishments, too.

Now that all the fun is over, I am reflecting on where I've been and how some of it has affected me. I took tap lessons when I was 5 or 6. I remember the total embarrassment of getting caught in front of the curtain when it closed and having no where to go. I remember the demands of practice and the reward of smiles and claps.

I was president of my Girl Scout troop when I was 11. I don't know that I was great and I think Shania will surpass me, but I remember the responsibility that office taught me.  A few years ago I was the mayor of my town for about 4 years. If I had known I was going to need the experience, I would have paid more attention the first time.

It is fun and exciting and hopeful to see my grandchildren growing into competent and successful people. I want to applaud their efforts and support them through these experiences, good or bad. so that they are not afraid to tackle the next job. Growing up is hard work, but for me looking on, it's also joy.

Music That Sings in My Soul

I watched a segment devoted to Tim McGraw on  CBS Sunday Morning this morning. He commented on the importance of music in how we mark and organize our experiences. He referred to a song he wrote and sang entitled "Live Like You're Dying." His father Tug McGraw died afterward. He admitted it was the most emotional experience he ever had in recording a song. 

The interview prompted me to reflect on the way music has been important to me. I've never had any musical talent, but I've always enjoyed the message and emotion I found in it. I remember my uncle Jimmie would hear a song on the radio and say "I first heard that in 1934," or "I was dating this little brunette that really liked my hair." Now that I look back on it, I remember that Jimmie tied songs to significant events in his life.

I'm more likely to relate lyrics to truths like rare poetry and melodies to emotions, the kind that play in your heart. Mostly its the "golden oldies" for me. Some of the music I lean on are the hymns that carry the words of my faith. They inspire me and keep me going even when things are bad. Some songs are like old friends: they remind me of happy times, loving people, joyous events. I think Tim McGraw is right: Music helps us organize our lives and keep the beat regular.

Pliny the Elder

Reading the Latin classics is very rewarding. And it's true that there's really not much that is new in this world. We try to make it new or look fresh, but it's just another case of "everything that's old is new again." I found a website that contains the works of Pliny the Elder, and the translation is from 1601. Middle English is not all that hard to read. Actually it's easier than the Middle English version of The Canterbury Tales I studied a few years ago. The translation is attributed to Philemon Holland dated 1601. My logic reasons that this indicates that English had progressed toward Modern at this time. 

Pliny was an interesting man, brilliant, productive, a military man, and an avid scholar. He wrote constantly. His only extant work is the voluminous Historie of Natvre(History of Nature). The book addresses all manner of subjects that occur in our environment including culture, history, and science as Pliny experienced it. 
Some of his writing was dedicated to rhetoric which was the beginning of a young man's introduction into society and adult thought. Writing on rhetoric was a way of being productive while avoiding the notice of the emperor-Caligula and Nero were both volatile and homicidal. 

Much of his military service was spent in Germania. Pliny was a lawyer and argued cases after his military service was completed. He served as a procurator several times in different provinces. 

The first entry I read in the History focused on a description of elephants in Volume VIII Chapter I.  I love elephants. His observations are fascinating even though not scientifically accurate. Pliny also describes many other animals and it makes sense that he would. He was in Africa during his military career. Reading and exploring the writings of Pliny and his fellow Romans gives me a new excitement about the New Year. 

On Being A Busybody

I am often amazed at the wisdom and insight of older writers and critics. The writers of the Bible and other ancient observers of human nature are able to give modern readers a new view of life in the fast lane. I ran across a very useful site hosted by Bill Thayer which gives some beautiful pictures of Italy and volumes of translations of Latin literature. I found "On Being A Busybody" by Plutarch among the many he offers.

In the text I found beautiful metaphors describing the unhealthy atmosphere of a house without light and clean air compared to  "unhealthy and injurious states of mind which allow winter and darkness to enter the soul."  Plutarch advises that we should rid ourselves of these attitudes, but if a thorough mind-cleaning is not convenient, then at least disrupt the comfortable arrangement.

Plutarch describes curiosity as the "first malady" to inhabit the mind in this way, but not the only one. He defines curiosity as "a desire to learn the troubles of others" and it is allied with malice and envy. 

Why do you look so sharp on others' ills,

Malignant man, yet overlook your own?

Plutarch points out that if we are so interested in the ills of the soul, we would do well to examine our own, not our neighbors'. It reminds me of Jesus' words in Matthew 7 verse 5(NIV) You hypocrite, first take the plank out of  your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Plutarch offers advise to help us remove this negative behavior from our present life and I am suggesting that in the early part of a new year is an appropriate time to proclaim this the year of freedom from the busybody existence. It is a process and may take a while.

First, Plutarch returns to the house metaphor. A homeowner separates belongings into groups-kitchen utensils, weapons, gardening tools, etc. then, Plutarch says to identify your shortcomings that flow out of the busybody attitude-the malice, the envy, the jealousy-so that you can attack them one at a time. Next, he says to "block the windows" so you can't see your neighbors' property and must focus on your own. Now you see your meddlesome ways as the evil they are and you ask yourself these questions-

Where did I err? And what deed have I done?

What duty neglected?

This is the beginning of freedom from your habit. 

Read the full text of Plutarch's essay.