One of my favorite memories of all time is when I was babysitting my great-niece, then age 3 or 4, and she asked me if she could play with my phone. She’s 16 now, so this was about 12 years ago, 2012 or so.
At the time I still had a flip phone, pink…my favorite color, and hers too. I’d dug in my heels and was resisting having to learn everything associated with being connected to the whole world through my pocket. I was comfortable with my flip phone. It did everything I needed at the time, and I knew how to use it.
Her parents, of course, had all that latest technology, and allowed her to play on their phones. Even at her young age, her electronic skills far surpassed mine. When I thought about it, which wasn’t often, it was humbling.
When she asked if she could play on my phone, I pulled it out and showed it to her. “I don’t have a smart phone like your parents do” I said. “Oh,” she said sagely, “you only have a dumb phone.” I was dumbstruck (no pun intended).
She began to panic when she saw the look on my stunned face. I was shocked because it was such a simple, child-like, but incredibly astute, observation. Out of the mouth of babes, as they say. Thinking she’d insulted me, wanting to reverse that look on my face I’m sure, she added, “But it’s such a pretty phone!”
Our perceptions, how we think of, interact with, use, and relate to things all have some relationship with our age. Our experiences are directly correlated to how long we’ve lived on this chunk of rock we call earth. I never thought of my phone as dumb…but compared to only “smart” phones Syvana knew, that pretty, little pink flip phone was dumb indeed.
Now that I’m 70, I think about age a bit more than I did when I was younger. It wasn’t all that long ago that 70 looked and sounded so old to me. I remember seeing pictures of couples celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary published in the newspaper. Even back then, being married 50 years seemed like FOREVER. And those couples looked like they’d been alive a very (very) long time.
Randy and I are creeping up on that 50-year marriage mark, reaching it next year. And I gotta tell you, we neither look nor feel like we’re as old and worn as the people in those pictures.
I suppose that in years past, 70 WAS old. Now, being 70, and more importantly, being retired, seems like a reward. We finally have control over all of our time. We are also blessed to have the financial means to live without worrying about supporting ourselves. The tag line of this blog is “True wealth is control over your own time”. In that definition, we are rich indeed.
At my age, I can finally do whatever I what, whenever I want. I start celebrating that until this little bit of doubt starts creeping in.
- You’re too old to do that….
- Why bother at this stage of your life….
- No one wants to hear what a 70 year old woman thinks….
- You are so different from the “kids” these days…
- It’s too late for you to make a difference to anyone…
In years past, those might have been valid concerns. Heck, they might still be valid concerns for some. But I think the internet counters a lot of them. As you sit behind a keyboard, no one can tell how old you are, how healthy you are, whether you’re beautiful or ugly, physically disabled or not. The internet puts us all on a level playing field, reduces us all to hands connected to brains on a keyboard.
Starting from that point, what matters most, what matters ONLY, is what’s coming out of those brains. Regardless of one’s age, the content is what is being judged. Does the content coming through that keyboard to the masses add value and positivity to the lives of those who stumble across it?
I am grateful. As I look back on how my life has evolved over the years, I can trace the events that led to my wanting to write again now. You often hear of folks who are enthusiastic and promising artists in their youth, but whose art is derailed by the busyness of life. Finally, they reconnect with the joy of art in their retirement years. Writing is like that for me. It hasn’t been easy, necessarily. But I think I have something of value to say, and writing affords me an outlet for that. When I was young, I was an enthusiastic and talented writer. Now I have experience…valuable life experience to add. I am reclaiming writing for myself, in the hope that the experience will be helpful to someone else.
I’m not alone in this. A few weeks ago I wrote a post, linked here, of signing up for a writing course. The majority of participants in that course are retired. My friend Michele and I signed up for a couple of free writing courses offered through a local library. Again, mostly retired folks. They now have the time, the desire, the focus, to take a shot at achieving something they have been thinking about for a very long time. It’s a worthy endeavor, one that will give us great personal satisfaction, and perhaps leave a legacy, another thing I’ve written about before.
I think back to my encounter years ago with Syvana. Her perspective and mine about the “intelligence” of a telephone was so different, but we taught each other something that day. No matter how old you are, you have something of value to offer someone else.
Find a way.
P.S. Randy and I attended an event last night that was livestreamed to the internet. Because we were seated in the first row, we were part of the camera shot for much of the video. Good thing our hands weren’t on the keyboard ‘cuz our age showed there pretty prominently. 😉
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