When the Homily is about Immunology

The Future Elderly

As I was driving past a local assisted living center recently, I saw an elderly woman being helped out of her wheelchair and into the back of a car. Perhaps not something you would normally take great notice of, but something struck me as I looked at the woman's face. She was "made-up", particularly wearing a blush that stood out far too much and it got me thinking about the elderly of tomorrow (assuming there are any - I wonder sometimes because as we find more and more that corralling them into "centers" is expensive and is a constant source of guilt, if we might find the moral reasoning to just kill them off...or maybe somehow convince them to do themselves in...afterall what have they got to live for? You know, "quality of life" and all that. The eldery can be as inconvenient as fetuses and as laborious as small children.)

Wow...that went spinning off now didn't it?

A simple flipping through a magazine and a brief glimpse of TV will show you the extent to which we worship youth and beauty. I suppose this is not a terribly new thing, but I believe that the logarithmic jump in technology (that tends to leave the elderly in the dust) and the extremely volumous quantity of media bombardment slamming our minds with youth and beauty is driving us further and further toward a dark and sad future for the elderly.

Think about it...can you name a popular television show that includes an elderly person as a prime character? Maybe "Frasier's" Dad? But compare and contrast with when "The Waltons" were on TV? Hmmmm...ever see an elderly person being used as a model for...well....ummm...ANYTHING that might appear outside of an AARP? Yes yes, I know we cannot blame the advertisers, they are simply doing what they hope will best sell thier products...but regardless this WILL influence our impressions. We are, as a society fast becoming like the spoiled and stupid Junior High Age girls who I can recall once saying "ewwwwwww grosss!" at the sight of an elderly woman. (Ah...where is the ghost of Christmas future when you need it?)

Given all that we are being indoctrinated with now, how will we handle being the elderly of the future? When surgery can do no more, and our agility and mental swiftness will have abandoned us to a degree that forbids us from being able to use the future "I-Pod extreme NANO." What then? When we are hauled off to our daycare centers because society is just too busy to bother with us...what then? When people laugh at us for watching 30 year old reruns of "Seinfeld" (like you did to your Grandparents in regards to Lawrence Welk) what then? When people stop reading your blog because they know you are just a crotchity gray haired grumpy old man and you really have nothing to write that's worth reading..."after all, he doesn't even know how to use the I-Pod extreme NANO"...what then?

I suspect there is a good deal of Grace to be found in this...like illness and other forms of suffering...they can be redemptive if we let them be. Can we argue that being "left behind" by soceity is neccesarily a bad thing? Of course not...to a great extent we are commanded to let it. Problem is...I wonder if most of my generation will be able to handle it. I'm not a terribly graceful person now, and thus I suspect I won't be as an old man...but one thing's for sure: I'll still be blowing hot air to anyone who'll listen...even if it's the annoyed nurses at an assisted living center.

Precious few are involved in a "Way of Life" that uses the title "elder" in a respectful and venerable sense. Talk about a contrast...talk about counter-cultural!
Gray hair used to a sign of a potential wisdom source...now it is a sign of weakness and societal burden.

Sigh...I felt bad by the time I arrived home after seeing the woman. I was somewhat judgemental...but overall I was sad that she felt compelled to try and beautify herself with a quantity of blush that was...well...to be honest: extreme. What a sad world she lives in. I hope she has someone who would be willing to just sit down and soak up her life experiences, which is something we desperately need these days.

Find and old person and listen to him or her. Reject this culture that worship inexperince and pretentious youth. As for me, I am going to call my Great Uncle Pete and have him tell me about his experiences in WW2...experiences that lose so much when you can only find them in books.