Reflections
On Faith And Life For The Years Of Winter…
Memory
experts say that old age produces a condition that is like chronic divided
attention. I can certainly attest to that.
That’s
one of the reasons we have short-term memory problems. Our focus can shift so
quickly. “Now that I’m old, I spend a lot of time wondering about the
hereafter. I walk into a room and wonder, What am I here after?”
One
of our friends recently proudly posted a notice that he had actually walked
into a room and remembered why he had
gone there in the first place. “It was the bathroom, but…”
The
problem with old-age brains, that give us that chronic divided attention, is
not just physical. It’s also spiritual. The very first commandment, not just
because God wants a lot of attention, but because God knows we don’t focus very
well, is: You shall have no other gods ahead of me!
Of
course, that really means you have no other gods at all, because God is the
ground of being, the end all of end all. There is no need for other gods.
We
keep creating lesser gods and accepting them and worshipping them, anyway. Old
age is a gift of focus, precisely because we know our brains can so easily go
out of focus, be divided. Every time we wonder “What am I here after?” we are
reminded of why we are here, in any moment: “To love thee more dearly, to see
thee more clearly, to follow thee more nearly, day by day.” [1]
JRMcF
johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com
1]
A song by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak in the musical, Godspell, 1971, from a prayer of 13th
century English bishop Sir Richard of Chichester.
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