A Reality Check on "OLD"

I know, life gives you some reality checks when you start GETTING old, but there are some good moments to learn lots earlier that we sometimes want.

One of my first came in Zilker Park in Austin, in the swimming area then called Barton Springs.

Coldest water in the world!  My great-aunt came for a visit, and wanted to swim a bit, so the whole family went.  I was 10 at the time, and Laura was about 60.  (In 10-year-old-eyes, that is OLD!!!)   I waited on the long sidewalk as Laura came out of the bath-house, then we walked to the edge.

"Let's race across", she said with a grin.  I thought:  "this is NO challenge."  But I remember being polite about it.  Toes at the edge of the pavement, we both dove and hit the water at the same instant.  It was SO COLD that I couldn't catch my breath, finally stood, and looked across at Laura stroking smoothly half-way across.  No way to catch her, so I followed along.

"Race back?"  she said.  "Sure!"  This time we started even, a standing start.  No competition.  She pulled easily away AGAIN.  She waited, smiling at the bank where we'd started, and said (kindly) "You might be pretty good with practice, you know."

I was a kid, with a kid's little inexperienced world, so sure that the small, red-haired woman I was talking to was as old as the hills!  Looking back at me with a world of understanding was Laura, director of Women's Physical Education and coach of the swim team at Tarleton College in Stephenville.

The lesson started then, but it took a long time to learn it (like every kid and most grown-ups) that: 'older than me is not over the hill'.

Laura loved teaching, loved physical competition, and she was (some years later) younger at 85 than some folks are at 30.  She understood that faith is all about abundant life, and that kind of life just keeps growing and getting better, day after day.  Her faith was not just about going-to-heaven-when-I-die;  her faith was about being every ounce alive in every day that God gives.

And THAT is a reality check on getting older!

Ah, Grumpy Cat Profiles

Is there anyone who doesn't have a mental picture of "Grumpy Cat"?  And, as important, is there anyone who doesn't know SOMEONE who really looks like "Grumpy Cat?"

I know someone, looks just like that famous cat, almost all the time.  I first met her when we moved here as newcomers (more or less) about 10 years ago, looking not at all like "Grumpy Cat".  She was very pleasant.  I asked about background for her and her husband, and discovered they were "church people", devoted Christians who had spent much time in service.  They described their history with warmth and friendliness, told of the joy they had had before their retirement, the different jobs they had done.

I listened, and then their turn came to ask.  As soon as I said the denomination of my ministry, "Grumpy Cat" appeared.  Short responses took over, mostly guaranteed conversation-stoppers.  I was the wrong kind of cat!  There was to be no "next" conversation.  Over.  Done.

The strategy from that point forward was a religiously based "shunning", an approach used by some groups to demonstrate their disagreement with other groups.  It has yet to be demonstrated that "shunning" ever persuaded the one shunned to suddenly draw closer to the "shunner."  The only result, so far as I know, ever, is to erect a wall that is then grumpily maintained over the years.  Different groups have done this throughout history, and, as an example, you can find documented in the lives of American presidents and their families who has shunned who.

It has never seemed to have a good outcome, persuaded anyone, or drawn people or families together, but some do persist.

John Wesley evangelized in a time in England when polarization and shunning were familiar.  He was banned from preaching in churches of the Church of England, although he remained a priest in that church until he died.  His response was quite simple: let's lay aside the doctrinal fine points.  "If your heart be as my heart, give me your hand."  If you belong to Christ, if you love Jesus, if you are part of the Body of Christ, then we are close kin!  That blew fresh air into the church in that day, blew out the smoke of old and smoldering arguments, and kindled a new joy into relationships.

Still works!  Except for those who are committed to shunning.  But along the way, you discover so many who DO respond to the joyful opening of new friendships, you soon don't take Grumpy Cat seriously.

There is so much joy to be discovered, it is worth it to put aside one of the rougher elements of human nature, and celebrate whoever it is that God places in front of you.

Smile.  Take a hand.  Find joy in life.  Discover what Jesus intends for every life.

Growing Up Fast

His Mom was a widow, he'd been told.  No one mentioned she was, in the language of the day, a "grass" widow (a woman whose husband had just left).  So when the state senator needed a page in Austin, he was eager to go.

At age 12, he was the page for the state senator from Tyler, discovering Austin.  Legislative sessions are less than a half year, once every other year.  So, before the Great Depression, he was living in Austin, at first with an uncle, and then in his own apartment, writing for a small newspaper.

At age 14, a man approached him on the Capitol grounds, asking about his relatives in Smith County, knowing all the names, but refusing to identify himself.  A short conversation, then the man disappeared.  This prompted him to pursue just exactly what had happened to his father.  The truth came out, and he found his father living in Florida.  By this time, as the Depression deepened, he was alone in Austin, with a secure job, feeling a bit detached from the economy around him.

Some folks grow up slowly, extending "youth" through graduate school, having to be "grown-up" as late as 28 or so.  For him, it was like learning to swim by being thrown off the end of the pier!

The lesson in all this?  It does not have to be made easy for a person to succeed.  Success is a matter of finding purpose and direction, finding that internal compass which guides us to "make something happen".

(It can be a characteristic to search out in historical figures.  From Abraham Lincoln becoming the best self-taught lawyer and orator in our history, to simple folks that you and I know, what happens internally is the key. )

The boy who started growing up very early went back to Austin after World War II, but this time as an honor doctoral student in graduate school, preparing to be a teacher.  A calling to ministry interrupted him, in a way, turned a corner in his education, and the boy who left home at 12 became a life-time student, and an articulate pastor and preacher.

Some folks grow up fast, and discover that growing up doesn't ever need to stop!  Jesus' gift of abundant life can always be a life-long adventure of becoming.  And then looking back and celebrating just how good life has been!

One Generation and Another

My mother's best friend stayed in touch all their lives.  Every trip meant a post-card, every holiday a greeting.  By the time their 50th high school reunion came around, they were both eager to get back to Jacksonville.

Mom's friend had been her tennis partner in high school, and they made a run for the state tournament the last year.  Having a familiar name in Galveston, and later in Indianapolis, she was always a fun guest to see in the hometown.

Taking Mom to her reunion, my son rode along.

"How did she get to Jacksonville today?"  he asked.

"I think in her plane." Mom replied.

"She flew a plane???" he asked.

"Oh, probably not.  I think she has a pilot now!"

"Probably not???  You mean what?"

"Well, Amelia Earhart was her idol when we were in high school, and she got a license early on.  She's flown all over the world, and her husband has the record for being the oldest licensed pilot in Indiana.  But today, I imagine her pilot flew the plane for her." Mom filled him in.

There was a long, almost silent sound from the back seat:  "Wow!"

My son discovered in that moment that folks now old, in fact with LOTS of years, haven't always BEEN old.  She and her husband had flown all over the world, hired pilots when they needed them, and finally graduated to a company plane when they no longer wanted to own one personally.  She had studied Amelia Earhart just like my son had studied Luke Skywalker and a whole collection of basketball players.

And it was just like the day that my Dad said to me and to my son, "Now, when you go to Austin, and visit the State Capitol, don't you be even thinking about crawling out a second floor window and walking that ridge that goes all the way around the outside of the building.  Don't even think about it!"  Which immediately did two things:  first, it made us look at that ridge and check out that it was possible to do it!  and second, re-envision my Dad as an adventurous teenager!

What do you see?  Ah, what do you perceive?  I see an older neighbor all ancient and stooped, but I perceive a 19-year old fearless young man (hidden inside) who flew back and forth over Omaha Beach, in the early morning darkness, flying paratroopers behind the enemy lines on D-Day.

Seeing doesn't amount to much without the perceiving!  And there's a world to perceive all around us.

Doing History

How do you "do" history?  When enough of us share memories and insights, then a picture develops.  I like to share family and other stories that are just good, and provide some historical insight.  Here's a part of the picture that sent me down this road.

For a long time in Texas public schools, J. L. Clark's textbook on Texas history was the standard for junior high school mandatory classes.  My mother was his secretary for a season, and one afternoon when I was 9,  sitting in his office, he offered me a simple project.  Fold some paper, and seal it with sealing wax.  Blue and red were available, along with a signet ring with a large H.  I did a few, and stamped the insignia in the wax with the ring.

I looked over at him and he asked if I liked the process.  "Yes, but what is the H?

"Sam Houston", he said.

"The college?"

"No, Sam himself.  That is his kit and his ring you're using.  If you're through, I need to take them back to the museum this afternoon."

That capital H became more than Houston in that moment.  It became a new face for History!  History in your hands is just not the same as history on a printed page!  It takes on a life of its own, and grows when it is shared.

History is not irrelevant stuff you gotta memorize!  History is the retained past, things other people did in their own "moment" when they were all involved in their "today".

When you track your own heritage and history, and understand how things got to be the way they are, you're equipped for tomorrow, as well as you can be.

New York Faces a "COST" of Democracy

Whatever can we do about obesity?  New York's answer was to ban super-size sugary drinks.  Not so bad, on the surface, but after reflection, that law by a judges decision is out.  And that's good.

Democracy means the freedom of choices.  Limits are there (the freedom to swing my fist stops at the tip of your nose!) but generally we have a lot of freedom.  Check it out historically, and by comparison to most of the rest of the world.  We are free.

If I want to visit my son's family, I just get in the car and go the 90 miles.  For my daughter's family, I get in the car and drive 1800 miles.  I don't check with anyone, it's just a thing to be done.  Many parts of the world don't have that freedom of movement.

Of course, it's not good for me to be obese (maybe a little chubby is o.k.), but freedom means I have the right to do dumb stuff!  I can eat all the double cheeseburgers and king-size fries available, washed down with vast quantities of carbonated sugar drinks.  I can drive irresponsibly whenever and wherever (tickets may happen).  But that is my personal freedom of expression, and it is basic.

Restrained from doing harm to my neighbor and free to make personal choices is a fundamental value.  The court was right to allow drinks to be whatever size one wants to order!

But, there are consequences to freedom that are a part of its makeup, part of its cost.  And that's good;  it encourages us to be grown-ups.  I choose not to smoke, but I remember my grandfather's laughter as he said, "Turkish tobacco and Scotch Whiskey are gonna do me in someday".  At 84, they finally did, I suppose.  But we are free to weigh the costs, and that's good!

Sometimes, whatever seems like a cost just may turn out to be a very worthwhile bargain.

Wealth at the Third Generation

The older mall in Houston was about to be torn down, replaced by something new.  A men's store offered a going-out-of-business sale. When I went in, there were two salesmen, both well past 70, with a style that seemed a bit out of place in that little store.  They had the air of specialists, selling to Houston's most prosperous men over a whole career.  Polished, articulate, they were just winding down a successful lifetime of selling the very best merchandise offered anywhere.

Friendly, they shared easily that they had just retired from Houston's now-closed premier retailer.  Both had gone to work as young men, sold men's wear, served Houston's high society.  And they had ridden the store in it's downward spiral.  And that day, they were talking about that spiral, that decline.

"The old man, incredible worker, started with almost nothing - but oh, he could sell!   And customers became like family, loyal, loving, perpetual, they bought everything right there.  When the store grew, and moved, and became huge, there was the old man, still family with customers."

That was generation ONE.  Generation TWO worked a 40 hour week, depended on staff, delegated customer care and relationships.  The business slowed, but was still incredibly good.  The old man would have been concerned, though, recognizing that it was running a flat line, not growing at all.

Then came generation THREE.  Play time!  Everything was delegated, and management adopted a new style.  Not so much in 21st century language that has become familiar:  "too big to fail", but the mental set was there.  "WE are too big to fail."

But then the incredible size of the retail operation somehow distanced itself from the "customer-family", and began to come apart, to un-ravel, and finally slide into bankruptcy.

The two men reflected:  First generation builds;  second generation inherits and maintains;  third generation has no idea what they have in hand.  Then it fades away.

Farmers know that truth, retailers know it, students of nations and politics know it.

And WISE people resolve never to forget that NOTHING just happens!   Un-wise people, year after year, look around at their momentary comfort, say to themselves:  "We be US!  We deserve all this!  It will last forever."

Which are we?  Whatever we think of ourselves will inevitably play itself out, won't it?  Retailers, nations, individuals.  We can always choose which generation we will be!

A New Pope

The Wall Street Journal today did an article on what to expect/want in a new pope.

Here's a piece of that:

Can democracy "long endure" if public policy compels religious institutions to be conveyor belts for government "services" that a religious community considers immoral? Or if the state decides who ought to be a religious minister? As an advocate for religious freedom in full and religious freedom for all, the new pope can help to strengthen civil society and its free institutions, which are both elementary schools of democracy and barriers against the encroachment of the Leviathan state.

Can democracy "long endure" if democracies lack a critical mass of citizens who cherish the common good as well as individual freedom, who complement self-reliance with voluntary charitable service to others, and who understand that they have obligations to future generations, not just to me, myself and I? A pope who calls the West out of the sandbox of self-absorption and into a nobler vision of human possibility could do wonders for the democratic project.

The next pope should be, in short, a charismatic, missionary culture warrior, challenging the world's democracies to rebuild their moral foundations and offering Catholic social doctrine as one tool for that urgent task.

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In all this, there is a call for Protestants to join Catholics in prayer for this hugely significant time for the entire Body of Christ, all of us.

Legal? Well, it depends-----

Mid-morning on Sunday, on the front porch of a rural church in the middle of an almost-wilderness in eastern  Texas, many square miles of forest with no paved road cutting through.  It was a beautiful spring morning, no breeze, no clouds, totally clear sky.

As I talked with the county judge, directly in front of us, maybe 1 mile distant, a slim, white, straight plume of smoke rose up, and up, and up.

"What's that?"  I said.

"What?"  said the judge.

"There"  I pointed.

"I don't see anything, preacher, and you don't either."

Obviously it was a still, a maker of moonshine, long after most folks presumed illegal whiskey had disappeared years before.  Not so.

Legal?  No.  Was anyone going to pursue it?  No.  It was local, probably everyone known by name, and that plume would rise like that on most any clear day, for a long future.

Listen to conversations sometimes.  Bad things that are OUR things are often laughed off`.  Bad things that are someone ELSE'S things are roundly condemned.  "Home Game" is not just a sports thing, you know.

And those little exceptions that all of us know about can become big problems for a tight population.  It works in the country, sometimes, but in the population density of a crowded city, not so well.

There's a big difference between doing what's right and doing what one can get away with.

Worth pondering in my own choices.  Maybe yours.

The Mentor Who NEVER Gave Up

After retirement, the mentor I've written about took time to travel.  When I worried about the expense of some of the trips for a lifetime teacher, she said, "I prepared for retirement, so that my disposable income went up when I retired."

There was the trip to Japan. She wanted to see so much, but particularly the Kyoto Zoo.  Making a long story short, she was startled by a large deer and tripped over the edging along the sidewalk, breaking a hip.  Surgery was done quickly, therapy followed, and she took a flight back to the U.S.  A short time of therapy near home, and then the Physical Therapist announced one day that there would be no further improvement. It was "as good as it would get", with her still limping on a cane.

She simply said:  "I don't think so!", took her cane for a long walk outside,  and began immediately shopping for a better recovery system.  After checking several exercise programs, she settled on one called Body Recall.  She became convinced of the value, and went to Kentucky to visit with the national head of the program.  She sold her church on sponsoring it and promoted it.  She traveled to other churches (including one that I served), and started Body Recall in several places.

For her?  She made a full recovery, left the cane behind, resumed her travels all over the world.  China and Africa followed.  Problems caught up with her now and then, but she was never passive!

How?  She absolutely refused to give up!  Aging happened.  Frailty came in its time.  When you live past 90, sometimes things don't work like you expect.  You boldly look reality in the face, head on, and learn how to say:  "It is what it is."  You pray and study, you love your people, including your church people.  You push yourself, but you never, never just give up!

But life is too precious and too good simply to give up!

Jesus offers "the abundant life"; and that is not a matter that just says: "I used to....",  not for "in heaven by and by", it is for today!