Getting Older?

     I can remember my father telling me that there are certain times when you become more aware of the fact that you are getting older; times when something happens that surprise you with that fact.  That day he had just gotten home from work and he said,  “You can tell you’re getting older when pretty young women stand up and offer you a seat on the bus.”  I guess so.

     I don’t ride the bus.  If I’m going further, or if the weather is bad, I’ll drive my tiny car, but if it’s not so far, and particularly in the town, I’m thankful that I’m still healthy enough to ride my bicycle.  I find it’s much more fun.


     However, something happened to me the other day that brought home my age to me.  I was in an electrical/electronics goods shop, buying a memory card for a digital photo frame that my son gave us, one that has its own phone number (!).  As I took the card to the counter to buy it, I thought to ask if I could get a battery pack that would speed up the recharge time for the flash in my camera.  My digital camera saves photos quickly, but the flash takes a long time to recharge, which slows the picture taking down considerably.


So far, so good.  But the young sales clerk’s first question took me by surprise:  “How old is your camera?”  …Ummm….  It really shocked me that I didn’t know!  How long have I had it?  I turned a shade of red, hesitated for a second too long, and muttered,  “I don’t know!”  She tried hard not to let me see the almost involuntary rolling of the eyes.  She spoke quietly into her walkie talkie microphone, and a young man soon came, who escorted me to the camera section.  His question was much more expectable:  “What kind of camera do you have?”  …Ummm… Again the redening, again the hesitation.  “Umm it’s umm a Canon.  I don’t remember the name.”  He politely and patiently showed me several Canon cameras with unfamiliar names and shapes, and eventually we worked out what general type of camera I have.


Now, the shocking thing about all this, is that I have always been very aware of equipment, its age, the names, and the relative merits of varying products, etc.  I thought I was good at all that (actually, I don’t know if “good” is an appropriate word here; maybe “capable”, or “informed” would be better).  The shocking realization was that I couldn’t answer what should be very simple questions about a piece of equipment that I own and use.  


When I was young, we laughed at my history professor uncle who knew all about the Norman Conquest, but didn’t know what year his car was.  I realized recently with a shock that I didn’t know what year my car is!


As I left the electronics goods shop, I thougt about the encounter, wondering why I had trouble answering such questions.  The answer I came up with was enlightening.  I couldn’t remember those things because they are no longer important to me.  Just as I can’t remember the valence numbers I learned in school, or the formula for inductive reactance, because they are no longer important to my life’s interests.  At one time they were important to me, and I needed them because of the focus of my life at that time.  


I find as I get older that my ideas of what is important in life are changing.  When I was younger, I was much more interested in machines, facilities, electronic equimpent, computers, and such things, and I had little patience for the intracies of human nature.  If a machine breaks down, you can repair it.  Find where the defect is, replace the part, put it back together, and it works.  But who can figure out people?  They misrepresent themselves, often don’t even understand themselves, act in reaction to so many indiscernable influences, and they are illogical.  People generally are not logical, they are emotional beings.


However, as I age, I am finding that if life has any purpose at all (most of us know well that it does), it must be discernable it the basic issues of life.  One of the most important parts of our life is relationships.  There are about seven billion of us on this planet, and just by sheer numbers we can see that relationships are important.  This is also borne out by man’s inherent tendency toward social structure.  Relationships are much closer to our overall purpose for existance than are our machines or technology.  Through our relationships with other people, we can also see many models for our relationship with God, which is also very central to our existance.


This change of focus from technology to relationship reflects a maturity, something that I have gained from living all the years I have on Earth.  I find it is very valuable, and I am very thankful for it.  I would not want to trade any of that for a greater awareness of my camera or my car.