" Oh yea, there's an adage, 'Age is older but the tastes are younger' -- I am really vexed with our father-in-law, he all ways demands something or the other, never satisfied with the food prepared, finds some flaw with each preparation, saying,'Salt is less, spices are not enough, the curry is not having enough savour'.. I am not able to cope up with this old man, I am really tired of him"---The first daughter-in-law in the Indian Joint family was complaining to the younger daughter-in-law about the OLDBOY in the home.
"Yes, elder sister, I am really bewildered with something else with this old man, When I asked him " Uncle where is the news paper? He could not hear a word of mine, and pretends that I am not existed there; but when I was complaining to your brother-in-law about his dad is behaving very awkward and insisting things to be done in his own way, which is not possible to me all ways,' he could hear it and answered me ..in his own style you know..!!?"--the younger was desperate.
"Yes , Yes sister, you know , you know , I will tell you some other queer thing about him, she lowered her voice pulling the arm of the other woman to the verendah, she said," You know what happened this morning, our nieghbour, came to ask for a cup of sugar, and enquired our father-in-law, 'uncle , did you finish your lunch?, he looked at her blankly, and said, ' I don't remember child'---I was shocked, this man remembers the songs from the films of younger days, like,'MISSAMMA, and MALLESWARI' but cant remember whether he ate breakfast or not..!!!
I am really short of words, now, what to say !!" while she was speaking in great astonishment, the other one was staring at her with amazement.
----Let us check with this OLD BOY.. what is happening, here ..Why these young women were so surprised at him, the reasons are not only Lovelessness, but under education of themselves; they never heard the words Gerontology ( The science of the Old age) or Geriatrics ( The science of the medical problems of the Old people) This knowledge is beyond their capacity to understand, because they never tried to learn new things in life or upgrade themselves in recent developments of Human Behavioural Sciences.
Funny thing is the youth looking at the old generation, all ways think " Oh these old people are all ways old" On the other hand they think, absurdly, that they never become old...!!, they believe that they will be young all ways. This is a sort of illusion, delusion, and I must say its short of mental ability and hard heartedness of the younger generation.
You may think that you are young and you never will become old, but its not the reality. Now you may be very good in athletics, and climb the staircase four at a time, and you can eat chicken, beef, and mutton in big quantity and digest and grow your muscles, BUT remember 'one day you will become old' whether you don't like or not. That is REALITY.
in Ecclesiastes 12:3_5 Its written like this. " When your eye retina has thick membrane,making you not to visualize things things properly, (the nostrils lost its capability of smelling different things, as you grow, the only nose and ears are still growing in size, and when you look awkward, and surprisingly your stature is shrinking in length and becoming shorter and shorted day by day...) even the cuckoo's song disturbed your slumber in the night, ( when you are not able to step on the weighing machine without the help of a hand nearby, when your feet do not cooperate with you ) to walk from one room to the other room also your knees gave away and trembles, your beautiful black hair cut is going to white bushy type (or your hair line in front recedes back and become bald, When you walk like a grasshopper holding one pole or the other, having three legs...when the desire, longings are completely dead, and when you are detached from the nearby surroundings and once upon a dear close people too, then, yea, then you will remember your grandpa, your dad, your mom, your old pastor, hey certainly you will remember if God forbids the loss of your memory !!!
Shakespear in wrote in the Drama King Lear, "Old age is for 'Prayer, Old Hymns, and Old stories"----We call it OLD School.
Do you know why God has taken away the strength in Old age?--He is telling you, "so far you ran, worked and did all that you wanted to do, that is enough, now its the time,Give all the time you have to me."
Why the old grand man sought for more salt , more spices, ..?
There is reason for it, as you grow old you will loose the capacity to smell the things, the nostril buds become blunt, so is with the buds on your tounge, even the saliva which is most essential to taste the food is generated less, the mouth become dry often, therfore when you cannot enjoy the smell of the food you will not know the taste of the food, as a result the even the appitite for food decrease. ( Just once your close your nostrils with your fingers and try to eat the apple you will think that you are eating grass..no taste)___ chilly , sweet, bitter, sour, salt spicy and other 7 tastes are lost to your tounge, you can not taste them, or differentiate them, thereby you ask for a little more sweet or little more salt, in your food, fearing that the people are depriving the savoury of life from you.
Well, what about the problem with the listening, which was complained by those two undereducated women ? In Old age it is common to get a listening problem which is medically known as Presbycusis, It means, the person with this defect can not listen to the loud frequency of the sound, ( Higher Sound Frequency ) They just can not hear it. Lower Sound Frequency reaches their ear drum. It means when you speak slowly or softly, they can hear. So if you shout in their ears, and waste your energy , its useless.
Now about the MEMORY POWER. Every body has two types of Memory Power. 1. Long Term Memory ( Remembering the incidents of the childhood, and youthful days, very sharply, because they lived in it, they enjoyed it, they felt it)
2. Short Term Memory ( Remembering the incident that happened just a few minutes or days ago, they can not remember , like who visited them recently, or what breakfast they took that morning etc.. these are no more much importance to them, as it was before.)
In Old age, people cannot remember the things happened a few days or a few minutes ago, that is their Short Term Memory is not that sharp. But the Long Term Memory is impeccable, undisturbed, here lies their wisdom, their valuable experience, their Life lessons from the trails and temptations they had gone through, they are printed on the soul, these are the things that come with us to the life after death, which will be shown on the Big Screen --if those were dirty and sinful not erased by the blood of Jesus-- you have to answer your CREATOR, that day.
Not only this they remember the places and people( Recognizing Memory) but its very difficult for them to recollect their names (Recalling Memory)
At this juncture I remember some Old Heroes who died in their old age, from the Holy Scriptures, The Bible. One of them is, Moses, Deuteronomy 34:7--9 verses, its written that he died in Moab, 6 verse, it mentions that he was buried, he lived 120 years, but his vision was intact, his energy was it was in his youthful days. ..About Joshua, he lived in between 1355--1245 B.C in Canaan, he lived for 110 years Joshua 24:29
Then Caleb, it means dog, very faithful, lived 85 years, but no traces of any old age, Joshua 14:11
They , even in their old age, very energetic, and powerful till the end. BUT even they could not escape the death, our Hero Moses did not have monument on his grave like some our petty leaders of spiritual, political, social world. People are building temples over the graves, monuments, and make pilgrimage to the burial ground to make a great fuss over the grave.
Martin Luther, the great Reformer of Protestant Revolution, who stood alone for the truth of the Word of God, in his old age, because of the great stress from every side, and because of many other physical problems, he suffered a lot. He got MENIERE's disease( for some reason the membrane or a little bone in the ear slipped away, and suffers from deafness, which causes a great ringing sound within the ear called(TINNITUS) and leads to dizziness which is different from fainting called VERTIGO, and suffered a lot. He also got ulcer in the bowls, and indigestion, and stones in the kidney, arthritis, and gout and even lost the clarity of mind in his old age.
But his faith in his saviour and in His blood, and belief that the Salvation is only by Faith not by works, was never unstable, His life was like a rock, and he stood on the Rock of Ages. He lived for 63 years(Nov10, 1483-- --Feb,18,1546), a short life, but he is in history of Christendom forever.
In present generation, Billy Graham ( 96 years )even in his old age giving word of God through T.V, and by writing books, and interviews, programmes and films, and never forget about the serving of Lord Jesus Christ. --
When you die is immetarial, unavoidable, inevitable, but how you lived for Jesus is all that matter, in your old age. and after death.
"Learn to Respect the Old generation, get up from your seat and offer your seat to them in buses and in the church, give support to them, walk with them a few steps, offer a hand to them to lean upon, get something for them to taste, and bring a smile on their lips with your presence, a few minutes at least.Thus respect show respect to them. and thereby respect yourself."--your dignity depends on your respect to others. Do not forget !!!!
