Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79
John, Thank you for your reflection and the many comments it has catalyzed. I am, now 83 just approaching 84! I wonder if responses and thoughts on the aging process aren’t in some way due to exposed nerve endings resulting from the latest turn in our culture taking place under Trump? And perhaps represents a nostalgic longing to “get out of this mess.” How? By simply falling back on the comforting realization that we won’t be around to “see the results.” And we no longer have the energy to throw ourselves into the battle for “A better world?!” I certainly experience a pervading fatigued as as my wife and I try to engage in the current political struggles and charitable demands. Thank you for starting all the reflections. Rod Rippel From: John Epps via OE Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2018 2:47 PM To: OE Cc: John Epps Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 Earthrise @ 79 Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail. Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM). Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades. This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….” This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating. John Epps -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Rod, Thank you for your reflection. I am now 85, (very close to 86) and your comments echo my own sentiments. However, I am encouraged by the young people and women who are beginning to speak out. I just trust “All shall be well!” Grace & Peace, Marianna Bailey
On Jul 15, 2018, at 12:09 PM, Rod Rippel via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
John, Thank you for your reflection and the many comments it has catalyzed. I am, now 83 just approaching 84! I wonder if responses and thoughts on the aging process aren’t in some way due to exposed nerve endings resulting from the latest turn in our culture taking place under Trump? And perhaps represents a nostalgic longing to “get out of this mess.” How? By simply falling back on the comforting realization that we won’t be around to “see the results.” And we no longer have the energy to throw ourselves into the battle for “A better world?!” I certainly experience a pervading fatigued as as my wife and I try to engage in the current political struggles and charitable demands. Thank you for starting all the reflections. Rod Rippel
From: John Epps via OE <> Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2018 2:47 PM To: OE <> Cc: John Epps <> Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79
Earthrise @ 79
Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail.
Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM).
Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades.
This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….”
This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating.
John Epps
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Thankyou John for the excerpt of beautiful images from Jeremy Taylor. I resonated with his poetry as part of my own understanding on the fleeting ness of our one life here. Thankyou too, for your own story of grace and care. May you live well, and with peace and comfort in your heart. To you and Ann, Cheers, Isobel Bishop. Sent from my iPhone
On 16 Jul 2018, at 5:04 am, Marianna Bailey via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
Rod, Thank you for your reflection. I am now 85, (very close to 86) and your comments echo my own sentiments. However, I am encouraged by the young people and women who are beginning to speak out. I just trust “All shall be well!” Grace & Peace, Marianna Bailey
On Jul 15, 2018, at 12:09 PM, Rod Rippel via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
John, Thank you for your reflection and the many comments it has catalyzed. I am, now 83 just approaching 84! I wonder if responses and thoughts on the aging process aren’t in some way due to exposed nerve endings resulting from the latest turn in our culture taking place under Trump? And perhaps represents a nostalgic longing to “get out of this mess.” How? By simply falling back on the comforting realization that we won’t be around to “see the results.” And we no longer have the energy to throw ourselves into the battle for “A better world?!” I certainly experience a pervading fatigued as as my wife and I try to engage in the current political struggles and charitable demands. Thank you for starting all the reflections. Rod Rippel
From: John Epps via OE Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2018 2:47 PM To: OE Cc: John Epps Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79
Earthrise @ 79
Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail.
Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM).
Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades.
This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….”
This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating.
John Epps
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I’m sorry to say, Rod, that I don’t think so. My concern for the world my grandchildren will inherit and all the messes they will have to clean up seems to demand a great deal more from me than I would have expected at this stage. I need a break in the heat and a new umbrella to stay out in the crowds longer, but I find myself out there anyway. Margaret From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Rod Rippel via OE Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2018 11:09 AM To: OE Cc: Rod Rippel Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 John, Thank you for your reflection and the many comments it has catalyzed. I am, now 83 just approaching 84! I wonder if responses and thoughts on the aging process aren’t in some way due to exposed nerve endings resulting from the latest turn in our culture taking place under Trump? And perhaps represents a nostalgic longing to “get out of this mess.” How? By simply falling back on the comforting realization that we won’t be around to “see the results.” And we no longer have the energy to throw ourselves into the battle for “A better world?!” I certainly experience a pervading fatigued as as my wife and I try to engage in the current political struggles and charitable demands. Thank you for starting all the reflections. Rod Rippel From: John Epps via OE Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2018 2:47 PM To: OE Cc: John Epps Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 Earthrise @ 79 Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail. Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM). Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades. This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….” This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating. John Epps _____ _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=icon> Image removed by sender. Virus-free. <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=link> www.avast.com
Thankyou Margaret and Rod- Thankfully we have many spirit tools to encourage us to keep following the crimson line. “ The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” That is my condition quite often. We are ageing, and yet our spirits are guiding us day by day and God is right here, in the midst of all the mess. I don’t know if I am making any sense, I listen to what y’all say as you write. I compare my experiences with others around me. Mystery will not let us down. Joe used to say “ God does not make mistakes.” That word has been a comfort to me in rough times. Love and peace, Isobel Bishop Sent from my iPhone
On 16 Jul 2018, at 1:19 pm, Margaret Aiseayew via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote:
I’m sorry to say, Rod, that I don’t think so. My concern for the world my grandchildren will inherit and all the messes they will have to clean up seems to demand a great deal more from me than I would have expected at this stage. I need a break in the heat and a new umbrella to stay out in the crowds longer, but I find myself out there anyway. Margaret From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Rod Rippel via OE Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2018 11:09 AM To: OE Cc: Rod Rippel Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79
John, Thank you for your reflection and the many comments it has catalyzed. I am, now 83 just approaching 84! I wonder if responses and thoughts on the aging process aren’t in some way due to exposed nerve endings resulting from the latest turn in our culture taking place under Trump? And perhaps represents a nostalgic longing to “get out of this mess.” How? By simply falling back on the comforting realization that we won’t be around to “see the results.” And we no longer have the energy to throw ourselves into the battle for “A better world?!” I certainly experience a pervading fatigued as as my wife and I try to engage in the current political struggles and charitable demands. Thank you for starting all the reflections. Rod Rippel
From: John Epps via OE Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2018 2:47 PM To: OE Cc: John Epps Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79
Earthrise @ 79
Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail.
Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM).
Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades.
This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….”
This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating.
John Epps
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Thanks, Isobel! One of my greatest rediscoveries of the last few weeks was Psalm 9 where in the translation I was reading said, “Don’t let people prevail!” It was a shocking judgement on many of my prayers over the last few months. I am just one of the people and I need to let God prevail. You made perfect sense. Not only does the Mystery not let us down, it will also not let us go. I struggle constantly to live with that knowledge and find myself fighting it more days than not. It is truly humbling to realize that we are only human. I am so very thankful for the humans on this journey with me. Blessings, Margaret From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of isobeljimbish--- via OE Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2018 10:36 PM To: Order Ecumenical Community Cc: isobeljimbish@optusnet.com.au Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 Thankyou Margaret and Rod- Thankfully we have many spirit tools to encourage us to keep following the crimson line. “ The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” That is my condition quite often. We are ageing, and yet our spirits are guiding us day by day and God is right here, in the midst of all the mess. I don’t know if I am making any sense, I listen to what y’all say as you write. I compare my experiences with others around me. Mystery will not let us down. Joe used to say “ God does not make mistakes.” That word has been a comfort to me in rough times. Love and peace, Isobel Bishop Sent from my iPhone On 16 Jul 2018, at 1:19 pm, Margaret Aiseayew via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: I’m sorry to say, Rod, that I don’t think so. My concern for the world my grandchildren will inherit and all the messes they will have to clean up seems to demand a great deal more from me than I would have expected at this stage. I need a break in the heat and a new umbrella to stay out in the crowds longer, but I find myself out there anyway. Margaret From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Rod Rippel via OE Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2018 11:09 AM To: OE Cc: Rod Rippel Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 John, Thank you for your reflection and the many comments it has catalyzed. I am, now 83 just approaching 84! I wonder if responses and thoughts on the aging process aren’t in some way due to exposed nerve endings resulting from the latest turn in our culture taking place under Trump? And perhaps represents a nostalgic longing to “get out of this mess.” How? By simply falling back on the comforting realization that we won’t be around to “see the results.” And we no longer have the energy to throw ourselves into the battle for “A better world?!” I certainly experience a pervading fatigued as as my wife and I try to engage in the current political struggles and charitable demands. Thank you for starting all the reflections. Rod Rippel From: John Epps via OE Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2018 2:47 PM To: OE Cc: John Epps Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 Earthrise @ 79 Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail. Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM). Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades. This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….” This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating. John Epps _____ _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=icon> <image001.jpg> Virus-free. <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=link> www.avast.com _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
As I approach my 69th birthday I am amazed how little older the looked-up-to older-and-wiser members of our community are! Thankyou all for the wisdom about engaging with the world And the aging process at once and the same time! Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: isobeljimbish--- via OE Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2018 10:35 PM To: Order Ecumenical Community Cc: isobeljimbish@optusnet.com.au Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 Thankyou Margaret and Rod- Thankfully we have many spirit tools to encourage us to keep following the crimson line. “ The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” That is my condition quite often. We are ageing, and yet our spirits are guiding us day by day and God is right here, in the midst of all the mess. I don’t know if I am making any sense, I listen to what y’all say as you write. I compare my experiences with others around me. Mystery will not let us down. Joe used to say “ God does not make mistakes.” That word has been a comfort to me in rough times. Love and peace, Isobel Bishop Sent from my iPhone On 16 Jul 2018, at 1:19 pm, Margaret Aiseayew via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: I’m sorry to say, Rod, that I don’t think so. My concern for the world my grandchildren will inherit and all the messes they will have to clean up seems to demand a great deal more from me than I would have expected at this stage. I need a break in the heat and a new umbrella to stay out in the crowds longer, but I find myself out there anyway. Margaret From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Rod Rippel via OE Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2018 11:09 AM To: OE Cc: Rod Rippel Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 John, Thank you for your reflection and the many comments it has catalyzed. I am, now 83 just approaching 84! I wonder if responses and thoughts on the aging process aren’t in some way due to exposed nerve endings resulting from the latest turn in our culture taking place under Trump? And perhaps represents a nostalgic longing to “get out of this mess.” How? By simply falling back on the comforting realization that we won’t be around to “see the results.” And we no longer have the energy to throw ourselves into the battle for “A better world?!” I certainly experience a pervading fatigued as as my wife and I try to engage in the current political struggles and charitable demands. Thank you for starting all the reflections. Rod Rippel From: John Epps via OE Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2018 2:47 PM To: OE Cc: John Epps Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79 Earthrise @ 79 Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail. Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM). Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades. This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….” This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating. John Epps _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net <image001.jpg> Virus-free. www.avast.com _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE@lists.wedgeblade.net http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net
participants (5)
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isobeljimbish＠optusnet.com.au -
Margaret Aiseayew -
Marianna Bailey -
mary hampton -
Rod Rippel