This is an open letter for my younger brother, upon his reaching a significant high in his number of birthdays recently.
Congratulations to ol’ Sid on his continued hanging around on this troubled planet to experience another big birthday. I give my condolences for his wounds suffered from hanging around so long on this potentially dangerous planet – for his tenacity to forge ahead against the odds of fate’s formidable efforts to persuade him to leave. Birthdays still come and go…and come again; but they’re not like they were when we were kids. Just as Barzillai told King David: “I’m too old to go…I’m 80 years old and I no longer enjoy anything!” (2 Sam. 19:32-35).
What if we lived to be 900 years of age or so, like Adam and Methuselah? Just think of all the meanness we could get into!
Personally, I’ve changed my birthday reminders to what I routinely do the other days of my life. Most every morning I have a private pity party as I forcibly ease myself out of bed, sit there to get my bearings, then carefully walk to the couch to watch the news. When I finally feel like celebrating life again, I fix myself a cup of coffee and eat a cookie or some other snacky nourishment. Truth-be-told, my favorite way to celebrate a birthday is the same way I handle most of my serious problems. I go take a nap! But if others want to wish me well, please just give me plenty of time to get up and get going.
Old age is somewhat unpredictable anyway; it’s what happens to you while you’re making other plans, you just wake up one morning and you’ve got it! It may help to think of some positive things about aging. As the noise level goes up, your hearing goes down. All those things you couldn’t have because you were too young, you no longer even want, and you only go through it once!
-John Driggers (4/8/2024, V6 #15)
