SOME ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON SOMETHING NEW AND UNKNOWN

 

I am almost 78 years old. The wisdom on the streets tells me that it is time to settle down and cut back. Most of us are familiar with the resistance and hesitancy that something new and unknown activates. We know that we have sometimes stood up to it, but more often than not, we have given in to that resistance. As we get older, we seem to give in to that resistance even more easily because (a) we may be tired and (b) "enablers" are a dime a dozen. They expect us to want to shut down. They even encourage us to close up, sit back in our rockers and reminisce about our past glories. Not me! 

Just recently, I turned down invitations to lead priest retreats in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Kalamazoo, Michigan. After doing 160 of them in 9 countries, I did not say "no" because I want to shut down and cut back, but because I want to leave room for something new to manifest itself rather than just keep repeating what I know and what I am comfortable doing. I am tired of airports and airplanes, but I am not tired of being energized by another adventure! I want to stand up to that voice in my own head and those voices that I hear around me that tell me that "it's time to give it up!" 

I wrote about this topic at length a couple of weeks ago, but in this shorter blog post I want to fill in a few gaps and expand it a bit more and tell you about a few people I admire who did some great things in their senior years.

When I left the Cathedral of the Assumption after 14 fabulous years, my motto to self was "Who said you only get one golden age?" I was offered an upscale parish. I turned it down. I wanted something new, not a duplicate of the same adventure I just finished, as if there was a shortage of adventures!  I went back to Saint Meinrad Seminary and created the Institute for Priests and Presbyterates that propelled me into an international adventure that lasted another 15 years. It included several smaller adventures within the larger one: writing a weekly column in our diocesan paper for 15 years, campus ministry for 15 years and conducting 75 Parish Missions. When that adventure ended, I was propelled into another international adventure in the Caribbean missions. When that ended, after 12 trips, because of COVID and a volcano eruption, I took on a project in my home parish: turning a closed school into new Family Life Center.  Now that that dream is coming along nicely and will hopefully be rededicated in late 2022, I am already wondering what new opportunities will present themselves in the time I have left as I go into my 80s.  

Is it foolish not to "act your age" when you are about to turn 78? Hell no! I happen to believe that, if I am open to it, the years ahead could be my most productive yet! I might even manage a couple more "golden ages" before this play is over!  One of the greatest advantages of being single, and there are many, is the freedom that comes with it! I don't need anyone's permission and I don't have to negotiate with anybody. All I have to do is get up enough nerve to "just do it!"

Minoru Saito from Japan became the oldest person to sail solo and non-stop around the world in 2011 at age 77. That circumnavigation was his eighth; Saito began sailing in 1973 and had previously completed 7 solo trips around the globe.

In 1998, John Glenn became the oldest astronaut when he went to space as part of Space Shuttle mission STS-95 at age 77. He did so as a sitting U.S. Senator and spent 11 days in space before returning to Earth.

The oldest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest is Yuichiro Miura who did so at age 80. Miura, who is Japanese, had completed the feat previously at age 70 and again at age 75. He had to overcome a variety of medical issues to complete his journey for the third time, including multiple heart operations, pelvis surgery, and a battle with diabetes. However, these issues don’t seem to be dampen his resolve at all: he plans to make the journey again in 2022 at age 90.

Johnna Quaas from Germany is recognized as the world’s oldest gymnast at age 86. Quaas, who is a retired P.E. teacher, only got her start in the sport at age 56. Quaas says that she doesn’t have any health worries at all and hopes to still be competing at 90. Although she only practices gymnastics twice per week, she makes sure to do some sort of exercise for an hour each day.

Nola Ochs became the oldest college graduate in 2007 at age 95. Ochs completed her Bachelor of General Studies at Fort Hays State University in Kansas and fulfilled her lifelong dream of earning a degree. However, she didn’t stop there. In 2010, at 98 years old, she became the oldest person to receive a master’s degree.

I don't expect to mimic what someone else has done, but I do expect to find that new and unknown something in which to engage.  In order to make room for the things that will bring me life in the future, I have decided to consciously let go of some of the things that brought me life in the past. Life's danger zone is marked by comfort. We gravitate toward comfort, but comfort is not all that it's cracked up to be. If one is to flourish and to thrive, cowardice must be resisted and replaced with that calculated risk that leads to adventure.