Hello Hernando County!
This story that I bring to you today stems from a subject that has been “on the back burners” for quite some time now but just kept getting bumped out of the publishing lineup for higher priority issues. I am now implying that I see this message as one that is important (at least in my eyes). Most of us in the “senior lifestyle” category seem to be struggling with keeping up with mankind’s (rat race) into the future.
This election cycle shows (by demographics) that the dollar is steadily shrinking, and we just cannot do as much with our allotted funds as we could just a few years ago. For the most part, this is a hindrance, but it SHOULD NOT be the thing that imprisons you to your homestead for the rest of your lives. Most of us have family members who are watching us (in one way or another), and our job of making positive impressions on them will not be done until the good Lord has given us our last breath to be taken.
Now, I have a good friend from my days in the army, and I had no communicative action with him in over 40 years. I just happened to see a picture of this old boy on Facebook the other day, so I went into investigative mode and reunited with him. It turns out that he has had just as many crazy adventures in his life as I have had with mine. The pictures and paragraphs on his Facebook site told me a lot about him (before I even made contact with him). I saw that he was not only a father but a grandfather as well, and the smiles on the faces of his daughters and grandson were a comfort (to an extent).
I also saw pictures of him with an oxygen hose on him, and this was a teller of a story that usually means one thing (C.O.P.D.). I believe that this stands for “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.” There were also many pictures of him with another older gentleman, who, by just looking at the pictures, had to be a person close to him. It turns out that this was his best buddy for well over 60 years, who recently passed on (from the same disease that my friend has).
Now as we have been having conversations (first through computer-generated messaging, then actual phone calls), It has occurred to both of us that GEEZ, we’re a couple of old farts! Our lives have slowed down quite drastically due to our bodies not being able to keep up with our minds. My friend stated that after he had a major heart attack, he has been nearly isolated to his home and had sold both his boat and his motorcycle. A couple of months ago, I felt similar feelings of distress, but a trip to north Georgia (to Lake Allatoona) and a few local rides on the Suzuki (650cc scooter) snapped me (mostly) out of that mode of thinking. (Unfortunately, my friend has circumstances that are different from mine.)
I guess that these “Fluffy Adventures” that my wife and I can still have are giving the other family members more “content” to talk about at our reunions. As I can attest to what the Lord has done for me (and to me), there are good odds that when it comes time for “HIM” to lift me out of my play area, the family members will be saying, “He never tried to slow down, and never lost that ‘wild hair’ up his backside!”
Now, getting back to my friend down south, he mentioned a few things (relating to what he did) this past week. He said that he blew the Saharan dust off of his four-wheel drive and actually took it in to get detailed. Besides that, he also mentioned that he went into town and bought some new fishing gear (including a brand-new pole)! But the most positive news that he gave me was the fact that he felt stronger this week than earlier this past year! I have always said that if you don’t use it, you`re going to lose it! I never really understood why many of the retirement “villages” that have been built, boast of their “ACTIVE LIFESTYLE” centered communities. Once my hair turned from brown to gray and then to silver (before starting to disappear), I “got it!” I always thought that this was just a marketing ploy used to lure those folks (now like me) into their subdivisions.
It turns out that it is the lure to an active senior society that works well in this “Floridian” way of life.
Getting back to the “legacy” part of this message, our generation has seen a lot of changes, and as of late, most of them have been created to tear our society (and our families) apart. Now, more than ever, we MUST impress on the younger ones in our clans that “old folks” DO NOT WISH to be set aside from the family unit, as you would do to an old car. Our thoughts and OUR ACTIONS need to be a living message to those coming up the ladder of life. Like it can be said of most preachers, just because they are at that age of retirement, it DOES NOT mean that they are through with their mission of spreading the Gospel (or GOOD NEWS) to a world that desperately needs to hear it, (or their families as well)!
I hope that all of you have a very blessed (and ACTIVE) week!
Steve Goodwin is a recently retired Christian conservative veteran (of the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division), who still feels that “duty to country” did not end when the military uniform got hung up. He and his wife Cecelia live on the edge of a beautifully wooded tract of land just south of the bypass, and are involved in not only church activities, but also attend school board meetings and local community action events as well.
