daily java

Daily Java:

As the Scriptures say,
  “People are like grass;
  their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
But the word of the Lord remains forever.” (1 Peter 1:23-25)

Getting older is strange to one who is doing it for the first time. I suppose that is everyone. It isn’t as though you can go to a seminar on it and learn how to get older, or have some trial runs.

You just do it. And then you are older.

I mentioned last week that I had my hand operated on. This week, the doctor took out the stitches and I am going through the process of rebuilding the strength in that hand.

Just a warning: if you shake my right hand and squeeze real hard like Chuck does, I will probably scream like a little girl. It is rather tender. And I tend to favor it. I know that if I turn it hard, the incision will not pop open and all my hand guts go falling out on the table. I know that – most of the time. But, still.

I was always proud of the strength in my hands when I was younger. That was before the onset of carpal tunnel syndrome and all. There was a time when I could tear a telephone book in half. In college, I would buy a used paperback of a novel I had to review and didn’t like and would return the two halves along with my report. Of course, now, I can tear a sheet of paper in half as long as it isn’t too thick.

Ella had to help me open my thermos the other day. It had gotten a vacuum seal and I became frantic. There was coffee in there!! I needed to get to it. So I got out the vise-grips and she held the bottom while I turned and finally it came open.

A little embarrassing. But, I guess, part of life.

I remember seeing a picture of the old Johnny Weismuller. He looked so wasted. I mean, he was about 80 or so, but still it was surprising. There was a strong looking man when he was younger. But he got old.

It comes to everyone. I have read that Arnold Schwartzenegger had to quit his muscle roles after his heart surgery because he was no longer able to bulk up like he did before. And he is only a couple of years older than me.

Sooner or later these guys – Arnold, Sylvester Stallone, others – will have to lay down the barbells. They just will be too old.

Everybody gets old unless they die first. That is why James Dean and Marilyn Monroe are so young to us. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, others who died too early remain young in our minds.

But everybody who lives gets old. And there is nothing you can do about it. Of course, you can live in the past, remembering the glory days when you could bench press a Buick. But it does no good. All you can do is be the best you can be now. Older. With weaker hands. Gray hair. An old geezer drooling into his coffee.

It comes to everyone. But God remains forever.