| Volume 3, Number 10 |
October 12,, 2003 |
Aging Well - It happened to me last week. I ceased to be a middle aged person and became an old person. That's a strange way to talk about one's 70th birthday. Yet Psalm 90 long ago said that the length of our days is seventy years - or eighty if we have the strength. Permit me to quote vv. 9-14:
"All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.
The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength.
Yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Who knows the power of your anger?
For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Relent, O Lord! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
That
we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."
So this birthday got me to thinking about how to number my days so as to gain a heart of wisdom. In that Psalm I hear the Holy Spirit inviting me to examine carefully the meaning of the days God has portioned out to me, for they are all very precious.
No, I'm not going to provide a brief summary of my days gone by. That would probably be fascinating only to myself - and possibly some others my age. Rather I'd like all of us to look forward in this 21st century and consider a few thoughts about the fact that people are living longer now than ever before in the history of mankind, to eighty years and often beyond.
Here
in Texas we are actually becoming a younger population. Only ten of us out
of a hundred are over 65 years. However, in absolute size of population,
Texas holds the fifth largest population of seniors in the nation. There are
more than 1.7 million of us here. Only California and Florida are ahead of
us. One third of us seniors live in and around the big cities of Texas. Yet
when you get out into the country there are more seniors percentage wise
than younger.
Find
more about this at http://www.thetexassearch.com/elderly_care.html
Okay, enough numbers. Next question. How might I attain my grandmother's age of 101 years? In my search for information from a human point of view, I came across two books that I'd like to summarize for you. The first is Live Long, Die Fast by Dr. John H. Bland, (Fairview Press, Minneapolis, Minn.,1997).
Dr.
Bland's book is the synthesis
of a life's work as a physician, researcher and athlete. He is a longtime
cross-country ski champion and marathon runner who has published numerous
books and essays. Although semi-retired from his job as a medical professor
at the University of Vermont in 1988, Bland still keeps up a research
schedule there. He and his wife live in a large rural home in Cambridge
surrounded by horse pastures, with a soaring view of Mount Mansfield,
Vermont's highest peak.
Bland,
who is now in his 80's, is
convinced his energy, drive and good health are the result of a lifetime of
good habits. But it's never too late to start prolonging your life and
enhancing your health, he says in Live
Long, Die Fast . He has
something to tell all of us, regardless of age.
Too
often, Bland writes in the forward to his book, the elderly fall ill and
become disabled physically and intellectually. "This specter of
decrepitude, to live with no awareness of family, friends or the
environment, is our worst nightmare. Such an end is not a necessary evil -
it can be prevented by using all we know about aging."
The
problem is that the elderly are expected to grow decrepit, to withdraw from
society, to become inactive, Bland says. But they shouldn't succumb to those
expectations. "As I entered my sixth and seventh decades," he
continues, "I vehemently rejected all suggestions to act my age,"
writes Bland. "At the same time, I began collecting evidence to
buttress my own personal revolt against stereotypical aging."
The
book is Bland's revolt, a systematic dismantling of the beliefs that
surround the process of aging. He offers are some good advice for all of us,
regardless of age:
1.
Move it or lose it. "The
elderly are especially susceptible to the consequences of
immobilization." writes Bland. "Too often, they are put to bed for
no good reason, sometimes before any problem has actually been
diagnosed."
2.
Avoid retirement. "Retirement
is a curse," he says. "I look on work as being as important as
food, and water, and sex, and job satisfaction, and happiness." So find
a meaningful way to contribute and share the skills and experience of a
lifetime.
3.
Sexuality lasts as long as you do. "Contrary
to popular opinion, sex after sixty is not the vice of the so-called dirty
old man. Nor is it wishful thinking,"
4.
Don't expect your mind to deteriorate.
This is a self-fulfilling prophesy that is almost totally unnecessary. Bland
writes, "Normally, there is no change in intelligence and very little
change in memory, and even this can be easily accommodated."
5.
Expect that the best is yet to come. Dr.
Bland notes that "...a full one-third of those over sixty-five report
their best years ever or that they expect the best is yet to come."
6.
Keep in good physical shape. Living
long and dying fast isn't all a matter of good luck, good genes or good
attitude. Bland also outlines a few time-honored methods for keeping mind
and body in shape - things as simple as eating well, drinking lots of water,
getting enough sleep, and above all, making exercise a part of daily life.
His book includes a whole chapter on the importance of drinking water - and
the importance of stretching.
While
he still has life left to him, Bland intends to make sure he does everything
he can to avoid the perils of protracted illness. He spent ten years working
on his book. The experience changed his outlook about his own death.
"When
I embarked on this book I expected consolation. Like everyone, fear was my
predominant emotion connected with death," he writes. "Who wants
to die? Death is not perceived as a pleasant event.." That fear is
gone. For now he wants to focus on staying alive.
The
second book is Aging
Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard
Study of Adult Development by
George E.Vaillant, M.D.
(Little Brown & Co., January,
2003)
"We all need models for how to live from retirement to past 80 - with joy," writes Dr. Vaillant, a psychiatrist and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. This groundbreaking book pulls together data from three separate longevity studies that, beginning in their teens, followed 824 individuals for more than 50 years. The subjects were male Harvard graduates; inner-city, disadvantaged males; and intellectually gifted women.
To summarize, Vaillant says that aging well all boils down to what he calls attitude. There are six factors at age 50 that have a great deal to do with whether you will get to age 80. These are
1.
having a warm marriage,
2.
possessing adaptive or coping strategies,
3.
not smoking heavily,
4.
not abusing alcohol,
5.
getting ample exercise and
6. not being overweight.
Vaillant writes that those who handle well "the minefields of aging" have a statistically greater chance to achieve emotional and physical health. He calls them "the happy well." These happy well "subjectively enjoy their lives and are objectively healthy." By contrast, the "sad sick" are "people who feel and are sad and they feel and are sick."
People who enjoy other people in their lives and who are enriched by their relationships with others, are more likely to age well. That's why he speaks of having a warm marriage. Also, Vaillant says that a person with adaptive or coping strategies is able to handle conflict in a mature way; he turns lemons into lemon juice. These first two attitudes are the two central issues in life, he writes. They are "much more important than social class or education or money."
So there you have it - at least from the latest research. Yet, as I read all this in connection with Psalm 90, I was troubled by two statements from the Psalm:
1. All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.
2. Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be gland all our days.
It's all fine and good to take good care of this physical body, eat right, exercise and keep active physically and mentally. It's also important to work at our marriages and other relationships. All this is nothing less than being a good and faithful steward of the blessings, gifts and talents God has placed into our hands. However, regardless of how long we live, we all die! And the Bible's profound reason for that is that we are all under the wrath of God because of our sinful nature and our rebellious acts. The wise man or woman acknowledges that and trembles in fear.
But the wise man also knows that God has heard the prayers of His people. He has not abandoned us. In His unfailing love, He sent His one and only Son to bear the burden and weight of our sin. "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).
Bottom line: My times are in the hands of my loving Shepherd, Jesus Christ (Psalm 31:15). I don't know how long yet is my time on this earth. Each day is a precious gift of His grace and goodness. I am at peace with Him. And I know and believe that "there is a future for the man of peace" (Psalm 37:37). That future involves eternal and joyous fellowship with my Lord and His children. It involves the resurrection from the dead and a new heaven and earth. In that faith I sing for joy and will be glad for all my remaining days on this earth.
†
† † Keep
the work of CrossTies in your prayers. Above all, we need your
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Become a member. Send a one time or a monthly donation. We are only
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Dr.
Alvin H. Franzmeier CrossTies
Theological Director. Write to me at alandsyl@airmail.net
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