Aging.
I was playing golf with a young man the other day. I think he is in his mid-20’s. He was telling me about a friend of his. I recognized the name of his friend and I said, “Oh I was good friends with his grandfather when we were growing up.”
It sounded ok in my head, but when I heard myself saying the word ‘grandfather’ out loud, I felt like he was expecting me to next say we rode the Pony Express together or something.
I’ve had similar experiences before. I’ve been talking to someone as a peer and I realize I could be their father. Or now, sometimes, their grandfather.
How did this happen?
I remember, early on in my career, when I was the youngest guy in the newsroom. Suddenly I was the oldest guy at the station. Oddly, I really don’t remember being the median age.
Aging is such an interesting construct.
I am fascinated by the effects of aging on our bodies, especially our faces. One day, you’re looking in the mirror and somebody switched your face with that of an older relative.
The changes are subtle and slow so you don’t notice them day to day, but find a photo from 10 or more years ago and you realize that gravity sucks.
My clothing has shrunk, my body has reorganized itself, and I can’t stand up without adding sound effects and noises.
Sleeping wrong is the equivalent of a sports injury.
Sometimes I will do something that reminds me of my Dad. A look that I give somebody. The way I rub my chin and neck when I’m thinking. Even the way I walk. Since he’s been gone, I smile when I get one of those realizations. I hope my kids discover they have one or more of my tendencies after I’m gone.
Fortunately I can laugh at getting old because I have had the privilege and blessing of getting here.
As of today, September 8, 2025, I have lived 24,866 days.
The life expectancy calculators say I might have 6,000 or so left. It could easily be only 1 or 2. No man knows.
When you think about it in terms of days, it’s kind of sobering. It makes me want to make good use of each one.
I went to a men’s meeting at our church Friday night. Over 500 men gathered for a cookout and games and a rallying cry from our pastor…on a Friday night in Milford, DE…c’mon.
Anyway, Pastor Kenneth shared a clip from the movie SAVING PRIVATE RYAN. It really hit home for me.
It’s the final scene. An elderly James Ryan is in Normandy to visit the grave of Captain John Miller. He remembers Miller’s dying words to him on the battlefield….”earn this!”
Take a minute to watch.
One thing that has shifted in my mind as I age is the big question.
When I was young it was, “What am I going to do with my life?” Later it became, “What’s next?”
Now it’s, “What have I done with my time? Did it matter? Did I matter?”
You don’t have to storm Omaha Beach to wonder if you’ve “earned this.” Every one of us has been handed days by people who came before us — parents, friends, teachers, mentors, maybe even strangers we’ll never know. The only thing left to decide is what we’re going to do with them… before our own family is standing by our stone, wondering the same.
We certainly are in a new and different season of life. It causes lots of contemplation for sure. My new prayer is “Lord, let me finish strong with what truly matters.”
It's been nearly fifty years since I graduated from high school. I've been retired now nearly two years. At one point I was the guy that would never retire. They would just notify Karen when they found me. In 2020 something changed for all of us but in me for certain. I was furloughed for two months and got a taste of what retirement may be like. I was sixty two and old enough but I didn't at that time. The wheels however began turning. When have you saved enough to retire? I worked a little over a year and told my boss I was going to retire. She made a deal I couldn't refuse with half the hours, travel as you please and work from home. No difference in the money. That was great until about two years ago when I was on the road to Bucks County PA and the question came, why am I doing this? My want to vanished. I announced my retirement and they knew this time it was certain. As far as what I've done with my time here, I've always tried to be where my family needed me, balancing a fifty or sixty hour work week with family with skill. As an only child I stuck around Seaford because I was all my parents had. I had an opportunity to move to North Carolina but turned it down because Dad had passed and Mom would be with no one. Then there's our church that I just didn't want to leave behind. I've been a kind of George Bailey as my father was before me. I truly believe that's what I was supposed to do. Available to God, family and church while working had to bless them all and now available to be Pop to my grandkids. It's a wonderful life indeed.