Age Happens
The Yanceys come from good genetic stock, as a recent trip South to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday reminded me. Her mother, born in 1898, lived through the entire 20th century, as did Janet’s grandmother, also born in 1898.
At the turn of the millennium we tried to explain this accomplishment to Janet’s “little Nanna,” then 102. “Grandmother, you were born in 1898, so that’s the 19th century. You lived through the entire 20th century. And now you’re in a brand new century, the 21st century. You’ve lived in three different centuries!”
She was silent for a moment, and I could only imagine the synaptic storm in her brain as she tried to absorb this news. At last she came out with a response that none of us could have predicted: “Huh. Seems more like five.” She then sat down to play a few hymns on the piano.
Living that long gives one a unique vantage point on history. When Janet’s grandmother died I figured out that she had lived under 20 of the 42 US presidents up to that point. My own grandmother listened attentively in 1991 when I returned from a trip to Russia and described to her the changes taking place after the fall of communism. “I remember when those boys took over,” she said, referring to the Bolsheviks of 1917. “I never thought they would last.” A teenager during the Russian revolution, she easily outlived Soviet communism.
When I asked my grandmother to name her favorite US president she quickly named Roosevelt. “That makes sense,” I said. “He led the nation in World War II, started Social Security…”
“Not that Roosevelt!” she interrupted. “I’m talking about Teddy. I went to see him campaigning in 1912. He was such a handsome young man.”
Longevity is a matter of perspective. A mayfly lasts barely a day whereas a bristlecone pine tree may survive several millennia. On the trip for my mother’s birthday, we stopped by an ancient oak called the Angel Tree, estimated to be 400 years old. When the tree first took root, that part of South Carolina was a wilderness where wolves and cougars prowled; now the region is known more for golf courses and beachfront condominiums.
Age happens, unavoidably, effortlessly. All you do is get up each day and gradually the years accumulate. Oliver Wendell Holmes likened the process of aging to a giant dog that gets into a room with you and grows until there is no longer any space to breathe.
As usual, Mark Twain had a trenchant observation: “When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it.”
Aging brings its own challenges, but it looks better when you consider the alternative. In honor of all of us who advanced one more day today, here is a final thought worthy of contemplation, from Robert Baker: “As I grow older, I care less and less what people think about me and more and more what God thinks of me. I expect to be with him much longer than with you.”
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20 responses to “Age Happens”
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About Philip Yancey
For Yancey, reading offered a window to a different world. So, he devoured books that opened his mind, challenged his upbringing, and went against what he had been taught. A sense of betrayal engulfed him.
Sorry to hear re: your brain tumor, trust you’re still doing well!
I, too have read most all your books & am currently reading “Vanishing Grace”~~you’re a wonderful author & I enjoy so much hearing a bit of ur back-ground.
I’m 80 yrs. old, & have a rare muscle disease which is slowly sapping the strength fr. me ~ but, I’m ready to go home to be w. Jesus, so will see u there someday, Philip!
You write a most encouraging note, Doris, and have a great attitude in facing your own health challenge. I do need to clear up one point though: I don’t have a brain tumor! My overall health is fine, thank you. –Philip
Well, I doubt any of them had a “growth” in their brain, as I have, which pretty much guarantees I won’t still be around at 102. Even though my Aunt Rosemary, my biological mother’s sister, is still alive in her 80’s. My biological mother died at 65. My biological father died at 67. Neither was a paragon of health so I have no idea how long I’m destined to live, unless they DON’T find a way to fix the “tumor” in my brain so that it doesn’t burst and fill the brain with blood, thereby precipitating a CVA (a stroke) for emergency reasons that will not fail in its mission to kill me. That’s the main reason I became a vegetarian.
Quotes explained: I call a growth a tumor and so did the brain surgeon who treats me. My psychiatrist insisted on calling it a growth. Which is fine for him, since it’s not his brain in which said “growth” currently resides.
To the quote of Robert Baker – YES!
Mr. Yancey,
You’ve done good work sir. Keep it up 🙂
That is all,
M
Just picked up, and am enjoying, your “Rumors of Another World.” Its 2003 copyright year has me wondering why it doesn’t show up on your website? Great read so far…
Hi Peter, Joannie here. You are very observant. The book was re-titled as: A Skeptic’s Guide to Faith. http://www.philipyancey.com/a-skeptics-guide-to-faith
Glad you are enjoying it!
Hi Mr. Yancey,
Am a long-time reader/fan.
Grew up on Campus Life. Westmont graduate, ’91. Teaching 1st Grade in a public school here in SoCal. I have recently undergone thyroid cancer treatment, and a friend recommended to me The Question That Never Goes Away and am so relieved that your perspective and reflections exist! I will be passing this book along to others inside and outside the Christian faith for a long long time. How honest. How beautifully connected you are to REAL levels of pain and terror.
The shootings in Santa Barbara just happened.
Question for you. Thinking big picture: How can we practically and effectively serve/help/heal the children and families who are suffering from mental health problems so that the slayings stop? It is an epidemic! What is going on? Here is my solution: I want there to be more mental health resources in our public schools starting in Pre-K. So we need money. So we need to write letters and campaign and vote and PRAY. Our school district’s counseling grant runs out in August of this year, and the gold-standard of a counselor, Jackie, will disappear from the lives our little people, from our community because of this loss.
Trying not to vent, but reaching out in a state of shock.
God bless you and your ministry,
Jennifer
I was in the UK when this event happened, and so I feel out of touch. The shooter was British-born, though, so the news has covered it. Oh, so sad. Memories of Sandy Hook and Newtown came flooding back. There is no easy solution, and some of the proposals (stricter gun control especially) spark fierce debate. Surely we need measures in place to identify those at risk. As I understand it, the shooter’s mother even alerted authorities, but no real action was taken. Again and again there’s a breakdown in an overworked system. Thank you for your concern. Movements are born out of passions such as yours.
I enjoyed this commentary about aging. At nearly 58, I am enjoying getting older and I love being able to remember a half-century of history! As I am always telling my husband, “It’s a great time to be old!”
Sorry Philip I mis-quoted… ‘each night’ should be ‘yet nightly’ but I don’t think James Montgomery would mind.. He reached home in 1854 aged 72 yrs.
The hymn is ” Forever with the Lord.” the end of the first verse.
” Here in the body pent,
Absent from Him I roam,
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A day’s march nearer home.”
Though I’ve really enjoyed reading the blog (& your books!), I don’t have a comment, but a question & I can’t find anywhere else on the website to contact you. My family & I will be traveling to Russia this summer to visit our adopted sons’ family, friends & former neighbors. We would very much like to share with them who Jesus is and how to have a personal relationship with Him. I was thinking it would be great to have a book in the Russian language to leave with them. Would any of your books be translated into Russian? Would there be one that you would recommend specifically? Over the years, I have benefited greatly from your insights through your books & I thought if they were translated into Russian, they would be good to share. We want desperately to let them know how much God loves them through Jesus. Would you please let me know soon if you have any suggestions for us. Thanks SO much!
Yes, at least six of my books are available in Russian, from Triad Publishing. Some Russian Orthodox churches have bookshops which stock them; I’m not sure where else to buy Christian books in Russia. I’d recommend The Jesus I Never Knew and What’s So Amazing About Grace. How wonderful that you’re connecting your sons’ past and present! May it go well.
What a lovely photo of your mom and you. She is beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Dear Mr.Yancey.
Your mother was laid by the best intentions. You are an excellent proof of this. Thank God for what has already been said and written and that more will be said. In truth, it gives salvation of many people. For many years!`
What a great legacy/celebration of life!
Getting old myself (though not in the league of your long-lived kin) and being more history than future reminded me of some words from George MacDonald’s Diary of an Old Soul (December, 9 & 10):
For then thou wilt be able, then at last,
To glad me as thou hungerest to do;
Then shall thy life my heart all open find,
A thoroughfare to thy great spirit-wind;
Then shall I rest within thy holy vast,
One with the bliss of the eternal mind;
And all creation rise in me created new.
What makes thy being a bliss shall then make mine
For I shall love as thou, and love in thee;
Then shall I have whatever I desire,
My every faintest wish being all divine;
Power thou wilt give me to work mightily,
Even as my Lord, leading thy low men nigher,
With dance and song to cast their best upon thy fire.
Well Said. I really enjoyed seeing that magnificent tree! It sure was something to see and what a great way to end our trip.
For what it’s worth, though, I have only lived during the reign of one British monarch – longevity has its obverse!
…” Each night I pitch my moving tent a days march nearer HOME.”
Congratulations on this milestone birthday for your mother! She looks great!
I can think of a number of things that get better with age…jeans, cowboy boots, a cast iron skillet, a baseball mitt, peonie plants, ivy covered walls, love letters… the list could go on.
Thanks for sharing this special time!
Dear Mr. Yancey, thank you for your site and genuineness. Daddy was a reader of your works and I have inherited his books. You are in great company: C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, A.W. Tozer. Your works are so relatable. I am enjoying “Finding God in Unexpected Places” at the moment. Thank you for your dedication. I appreciate your commentary on newly published literature. God’s blessings to you and your family.
Maria Engle
Charlotte, NC
Thanks so much for the article, sounds like ‘home’ to me as my 98 year old mother lives with us. I have watched her change so much in the last 3 1/2 years she has been with us. Those changes have come very quickly, but I have to look at the changes happening in myself and realize, too, that I am growing old…something I never thought would happen! Loved the quote from Mr. Baker.