All this sudden influx of doctor stuff is pretty typical, I think. It's not that I'm unlucky, it's just that everyone will eventually face the same thing as they get older. I'm older, but I certainly don't think of myself as old.
Old is about perspective. There was a time in my life when I thought that thirty was old. Then when I got to be that age, I felt surprised and upped the number to.....fifty. At fifty, I realized that, in actuality, probably seventy was old. Now that seventy is just around the corner, I have rethought it again (surprise, ha ha) and have come to the sound conclusion that in reality, it's ninety that's obviously old. When I reach a hundred, with one foot out the door on the 'other side', I think I will be startled to know, with sudden clarity, at long last, that I was never old.
Old is comprised of so many negative ideas. It makes one tired, sick, infirm, bent, grumpy, lined, unattractive, sexless, smelly, severe, judgmental, pooped-out, dry, easily broken, vulnerable, not too bright, probably unbathed, definitely useless, and did I say 'tired'?
Anyway, the elderly have always garnered glory by relying on the, 'I am wise' shtick but being wise compared to being sexy? No contest, right? Who cares if they're wise because as long as I can find what I want on the Internet, then I don't really need them for the hard answers anymore, right? So it seems that the old are forgotten and need to be kicked to the curb. In ancient times, the Eskimos would sit their old folks on an ice floe and send them off on an icy sea. Practical.
But wait! Here is a good question; if the old among us (not you and me, of course) are so unnecessary, why are they here? In nature, it's always about the propagation of the species. Life must go on! That's nature, alright. That being the case, ask yourself; why don't people die as soon as their children are grown and independent? Old people cannot propagate. What exactly do they contribute to the welfare of the species?
I have asked a few others what they think the reason is. Why do people live as long as they do? No one has given me a satisfactory answer.
I know a couple of lovely ladies who are both in their nineties and I admire and love them very much. I don't have to ask them what they think, I have only to look at their faces, and to see their lives and I know why they are here so long.
It is because they are needed. Children who have the benefit of grandparents are healthier and sturdier than children who do not. So, you see, it does come back to the idea of the propagation of the species! Easy. And complex, too. We're needed, we're all needed, no matter what our age. We rely on each other for our existence.
A few years ago, Danny and I took a trip up the California coast and drove through beautiful and stately Redwood forests. The trees hug the edge of the land beside the sea because the air there makes them thrive. You know they are magnificent, shooting up hundreds of feet, and giant size in their circumference, too. The most amazing fact about those trees is this; their root system is shallow, not going deep as anyone would imagine, if they stopped to think about it. All the roots are right there, under the soil.
So how do they stand so sturdy for eons of time? I can't wait to tell you, even though you probably know this; they are held firmly in the arms of their fellows. All the roots of all the trees in the forest are intertwined with each other. There is a vast network of tangled roots, all firmly clasping each other over centuries of time. There is never a danger of one tree plunging over or sinking into the earth, because his brothers hold him up, just as he holds up his brothers.
That's my metaphor for us and for all of our brothers and sisters who are coming closer and closer to that dreaded place; 'old age'. We are needed and we need others, too. I secretly believe that one of the reasons the good Lord created Redwood forests was so that we could see the connection we people have with the trees; dependent on each other for our lives.
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