Kinship With The Past

The great Western movie character, the late Ben Johnson, observed in one of his many films, "The worst part of getting old is getting old!" 


(Personal Note: Ben was from Oklahoma and a very good friend of one of the wisest men I have ever known. The late Charlie Vieux, member of the  Native American Citizen Pottawatomi Nation, and champion team roper, told me some stories about knowing Ben. The stories were all favorable. In addition, Charlie was a cousin to the late Jim Thorpe, maybe the greatest overall athlete in the world. These stories were not so favorable.)


Many of us would most likely say, "AMEN" to Ben's line. 


However, something very special happens as we grow older. (I don't mean senior citizen discounts!) We start to add words to our vocabulary that we had not previously used, or even thought about. Words such as "Decades" and "Century" help us not only define ourselves but help link us to the past.The major events in our family's history, the history of our great nation, and even world history,do not seem that far away when we use our new vocabulary as a timeline to measure them.


Another thing happens to us as we grow older that is obvious, but now it gets personal. We no longer can "kick the can" of our own mortality further down the road. To paraphrase President Truman's well known sign upon his desk in the Oval Office, "The can stops here!" That maybe a scary thing for some; but for those who have made the choice of following Jesus, it is a wonderful joy and acceptance of our short span upon this planet. 


This final point in this Post has to do with our understanding of the very nature of humanity. Time doesn't permit a detailed explanation, other than to suggest  as we grow older we come to realize that the THINGS around humanity, translated us, may undergo great and profound change, yet the basic nature of all humanity has not changed. The First Family in the Garden of Eden experienced love, fear, sorrow, deceit, rationalization, rejection, and all of the human emotions that all of us possess. 


I never thought of these things as a student at PCHS; I  was not able to do so, because some things in life can only be experienced by living long enough to understand them.