GROWING OLD

Stanley Hauerwas, professor and author wrote,

“The substitution of technique for wisdom is one of the main reasons that we have no place for understanding the responsibilities and status of the elderly. In wisdom cultures, the elderly are expected to remember the judgments made in the past about matters that pertain to the present. Once a social order no longer depends on memory, the old have no responsibility to younger generations. The result, too often, is to make growing old a dreadful development which may increasingly be understood as an illness. To grow old in societies like the United States means your primary responsibility is to get out of the way.”

I’m headed over to my side of the Pond to have some Cuban Coffee and Cinnamon Toast and wonder what it would be like “to be elderly” some day.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” Jesus