WHY OLD PEOPLE TALK TO THEMSELVES [1-22-23]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—WHY OLD PEOPLE TALK TO THEMSELVES [1-22-23]

 

Helen and I are old and have pre-existing conditions, like decrepitude, so we must be careful to avoid the covid virus, especially this most recent strain that is so contagious. So, we don’t go out much, especially to restaurants.

Unless somebody else offers to pay

Thus, we had lunch with Bob and Julie Hammel, paid for actually by their children, via Christmas gift cards. Bob is the great newspaper writer, primarily sports, and his wife shows up in his columns as “Sweet Julie.” They’re fun.

Bob’s writing skills are legendary. Even more so his memory, a reputation I share with him, to a lesser degree. It must be hilarious to watch two old men renowned for words and memory try to tell each other stories. I think that because Helen and Julie laughed a lot, and I don’t think it was “with” us.

Bob told us of talking with a retired writer friend shortly before he himself retired. “Tell me what I’m going to miss,” Bob said. “He thought a long time and then said, “Not much, but sometimes something happens that I really want to comment on, but I no longer have any way to do it.”

I think that’s one of the major reasons I write CIW. Often, I think that I should quit just because I really have no more stories. Then, however, something happens…especially the death of a friend…and it reminds me of some other occasion… and I really feel the need to say something about it.

You are in an elite group, dear reader. You don’t have many peers. Not many fellow readers of this column. But you give me a chance to continue telling my stories, and remembering past times and gone friends. That’s how I know that I am alive.

I write primarily to communicate with myself, to learn what I’m thinking, who I am now. But it’s necessary to have readers other than myself, to have the reason to communicate with myself.

That is a real problem for old people. It’s not just that no one wants to listen to us, although that is probably true. But it’s also that most folks don’t have a chance to listen to us, because we don’t have an outlet. If we did, folks would be fascinated, and ask us to comment on everything, all the time. So maybe it’s best this way. I do, though, want to thank you for reading. It’s a great gift, just listening, just reading.

John Robert McFarland