Youthful
Season
“Youth—full
of grace, force, fascination! Do you know that Old Age may come after
you, with equal grace, force, fascination?”
Walt
Whitman
This
time of year, when everything is coming alive after a long, cold
winter, folks my age feel full of youthful energy. Our activity level
increases as we clean out our houses, clear out our gardens and get
ready for the growing season ahead. As a young woman, this change of
season was more about new clothes and just the right amount of
suntan. My girlfriends and I put lemon juice on our hair to streak it
blonde. The activities that interested me were not green in nature. I
suspect that young'uns still turn in that direction with grace, force
and fascination.
Nowadays,
spring still feels like spring, the sap rises and the birds sing. I
have a hard time staying indoors, and I plan to dig in the dirt until
I can't get down there to do it anymore—or at least, can't get back
up. Along with that increase in activity comes an increase in
ibuprofen, Band Aide patches, and ThermaCare heat wraps. I surely
don't lie in the sun, covered in baby oil and iodine! And new clothes
only matter if I can't fit into the old ones.
Time
changes you—thank God! I agree with Whitman that aging comes with
its own grace, force and fascination. I find the older I am, the more
interested I am in what young people are thinking. The greatest shift, from my perspective, is their grasp of world events. I suppose we have
social media to thank for the fact that our young people know just as
well what's happening in Japan or Argentina as Arkansas or San
Francisco. They live in a global village—sports stars, actors,
musicians come from every country, not just New York, Nashville, and
L.A. They listen to world music, not just rock. When I was young, I
had to look at a map to know where Michigan lay, much less Manchuria
and Timbuktu.
The
grace of old age comes in applying the brakes to outrageous behavior
and outspoken boldness. We have learned, hopefully, that the more we
know, the less certain we are of concepts such as good and evil,
right and wrong. We have come to understand that our way is not
always best, and that, as Maria Montessori espoused, teaching
a child to do things our way may prevent him from finding his own
way. We have learned patience, and acceptance, and gratitude,
sometimes for what we did not get that we thought we wanted, and
could not live without. I do not envy youth their spring, but I do
light a candle for them now and then. If they're anything like I was,
they need our prayers.
All
ages are good if you make them so.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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