In living things (beings), growth implies change and development, usually in the form of an increase or expansion. Why then do we refer to the process of aging with the seemingly contradictory phrase “growing old?”
We begin to shrink physically past a certain age -- say, fifty or so. Instead of growing, expanding, and maturing, we diminish, contract, and overripen. Where then is one to find the growth that aging apparently provides?
It takes little rumination to understand that growing old should refer to the spiritual—that we should use old age to focus on changing, developing, and expanding our spirit; on reflecting on our mortal lives and our memories; on learning lessons yet unlearned; on tying up loose ends and neglected frays from our mortal relationships; on preparing and building up our “self”, our true “self”, for resurrected life.
Very few elders today appear to understand this, which helps explain the ubiquity of septuagenarians (and older!) saturating the System via politics, corporations, finance, the military, NGOs, boards, churches, and organizations of every imaginable kind. A half-rotten cornucopia overflowing with individuals in the grips of glaring physical and mental decline, yet all still doggedly determined to grow, increase, and expand something; that is, everything but the spirit.
Some might suggest that this overabundance of the aged in public life and positions of power has everything to do with the accrued wisdom such individuals have to offer.
To this I say, when was the last time you heard any System old timer say anything that was even remotely astute? In fact, when was the last time you heard any general old person say something sagacious or act wisely?
I’m not saying such individuals do not exist, but they are becoming increasingly rare, and that reveals something deeply unsettling about what’s left of our so-called culture and civilization, to say nothing of our fundamental metaphysical assumptions, or lack thereof.
We begin to shrink physically past a certain age -- say, fifty or so. Instead of growing, expanding, and maturing, we diminish, contract, and overripen. Where then is one to find the growth that aging apparently provides?
It takes little rumination to understand that growing old should refer to the spiritual—that we should use old age to focus on changing, developing, and expanding our spirit; on reflecting on our mortal lives and our memories; on learning lessons yet unlearned; on tying up loose ends and neglected frays from our mortal relationships; on preparing and building up our “self”, our true “self”, for resurrected life.
Very few elders today appear to understand this, which helps explain the ubiquity of septuagenarians (and older!) saturating the System via politics, corporations, finance, the military, NGOs, boards, churches, and organizations of every imaginable kind. A half-rotten cornucopia overflowing with individuals in the grips of glaring physical and mental decline, yet all still doggedly determined to grow, increase, and expand something; that is, everything but the spirit.
Some might suggest that this overabundance of the aged in public life and positions of power has everything to do with the accrued wisdom such individuals have to offer.
To this I say, when was the last time you heard any System old timer say anything that was even remotely astute? In fact, when was the last time you heard any general old person say something sagacious or act wisely?
I’m not saying such individuals do not exist, but they are becoming increasingly rare, and that reveals something deeply unsettling about what’s left of our so-called culture and civilization, to say nothing of our fundamental metaphysical assumptions, or lack thereof.
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