ROUNDING UP [T, 10-3-23]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—ROUNDING UP [T, 10-3-23]

 

Can I make it through the winter? That is what old people ask about this time of year. If they do not want to try it, they go ahead and die in October.  Ministers and funeral directors know that.

If we do decide to try to make it through the winter, it seems such a waste to die half-way along, so we wait until May to die. Ministers and funeral directors know that, too.

It seems so wrong, that October and May are the dying months. They’re the prettiest months of all—new leaves in spring, and colored leaves in fall.

As October comes on, we face the question that the colored leaves put to us: can you make it through? Through the snow, the cold, the boots, the isolation…

So often we lose the joy of autumn by dreading the advent of winter. But autumn should be a joy in itself, and also a joy that winter is coming, because winter is a privilege. Not everyone gets to winter. I am glad that I have made it to winter. Almost.

So I do not intend to die in Oct. I shall die on Feb. 5. Not this next one, I hope. Maybe not for many February fifths to come. But I think that Feb. 5^th is perfect.

So often I see an obit of someone who was born on, let’s say, Sept 8 of 1937 and died on Sept. 7 of 2023, and the obit says he was 85. No! They cheated him out of 364 days.

That’s why on August 5 I start saying that I am a year older than people usually acknowledge. If you’re closer to the next birthday than you are to the last one, then round up.

That’s why young children and old people get along so well. We are the only age groups that want to claim we are older than others acknowledge.

John Robert McFarland