John Scalzi, In Old Man’s War, talks about getting older, and dealing with disease and other physical frailties. It was something like, “It’s not one thing after another, it’s everything all at once.”
Inside—and this sounds weird—I feel timeless. I feel like the same me as I was when I was walked to school on the first day of kindergarten. Of course, there were some stages in my life that I intentionally ignore, but it was the same me, even then.
The bad news is that I cannot do as many things, or do them as long as I used to. I certainly keep shorter hours (sorry, 8:00 PM, time for bed—but then again, my alarm goes off at 5:00 AM). However, what I do these days is grounded in a better understanding of life, the world, and the will of God. Diplomats, politicians, salesmen, attorneys, et al, say things that are their job, not what they mean—at least in some cases. I tend to ignore that noise and focus on those things that rise above it. No matter what people say or do, I believe that God’s will predominates, even if we do not immediately see it. In other words, everything is going to ultimately be all right.
The “everything all at once” isn’t all bad. It includes the ability to see the big picture, rather than the sound bites, the trends, or whatever. That’s the benefit of getting older.
sfnowak 