A Thanksgiving Litany on Aging

From: Rodret69@aol.com <Rodret69@aol.com>
Date: Nov 22, 2006 9:58 PM
Subject: A Thanksgiving Litany on Aging

A THANKSGIVING LITANY ON AGING
Rev. Dr. Rodney R. Romney
November 23, 2006

Recently I watched a program on television about the largest age group in America today.  Not teeny-boppers or tots, as one might suspect, but seniors 85 years and older.  Largely because of advanced medical care, people in America are now living longer than any previous generation in human history. 

The problem is that quantity of years does not necessarily mean quality.  As one doctor on the program noted, we know how to extend human life, but we do not yet know how to solve all of the health problems that come in our later years.  After age 85 the average person usually ends up in a nursing home, or in a few cases under the care of a younger family member.   Many in that age category suffer from mental dimentia and/or physical disabilities,  problems that medical science is not yet able to treat. 

I doubt that anyone watching that show would eagerly look forward to life after 85.  The show was centered largely on the problems that come with advanced age and the inability of medical science to treat most of those problems.   Yes, as a human race we are living longer. But are we better off because of it? 

What was missing in the show was any discussion about how one should consciously approach aging.   It focussed instead on the problems and pitfalls that usually come as we age.  Nothing was said about diet, exercise, or mental activities that would alleviate many of the problems that aging often creates.

I am 75 and Beverly is 70.  We have now been married for forty-two years. She was a home economics teacher and has long been an ardent nutrtionist.  She always insisted that we have a healthy diet, with plenty of fruits and vegetables.  Today, thanks largely to her, we are both in good health and as active as we were before we retired. 

Shortly after my retirement from Seattle First Baptist Church in 2000 I was invited to be part of a program on the beneficial effects of exercise on the aging male.  It was sponsored by the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle.  Elaborate and detailed medical examinations before and after that six month program proved that I was healthier at the end than I was when I entered it.  My weight had dropped, my heart was stronger, and all my vital signs were improved.  The doctors supervising the program noted that while health is largely genetic, diet and exercise are significant forces in keeping the body and mind healthy and strong.  As a result, I have continued the program and still go to a gym at least four times a week.  Do I enjoy it?  Not completely.  Basically I find that hour of exercise somewhat boring.  But as I have practiced the Buddhist discipline of mindfulness during that time, I have learned to be grateful for the body I have been given and the good physical health which I have enjoyed most of my life. 

Besides nutrition and exercise, I keep my mind active and busy by  reading current books and magazines.  I even work the daily crossword puzzle and other little word games on that particular page of the newspaper.  I continue to speak at various places one or two times a month, which requires that I remain a student, not only of theology but of life. 

In another ten years I will enter that category which currently contains the largest percentage of people in America today, those who are 85 and over.  If sickness or disability should come to me in the future, I hope to meet them with determination and optimism and still be a vital and contributing member of the human race.  When that final moment arrives, when I lay down this life for whatever might be next, I hope to do it with complete gratitude for the wonderful time I have had while I was here. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, my dear friends.  And as they say here in Idaho: keep on truckin' now, y'hear!

--
"If we tolerate bad leadership, we will get the leadership we deserve."
-- Barbara Kellerman, author of "Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters." (See http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/10.28/11-bad.html)

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.
  - Henry David Thoreau