December 30, 2019
Uncle John wrote, “My Dad enjoyed reading and devoured all Mennonite publications. He knew about everything there was to know about church schools, and Mennonite ministries and churches throughout the World. If it was in The Gospel Herald, my Dad could and would talk about it.”
Uncle John is referring to my Grandpa Hess in Grandpa’s middle years. Those words sent me back to a visit with Grandpa, close to the end of his life. He was lying in a bed. To my surprise he mentioned an article of mine that appeared in one of the church papers. He didn’t comment on the article, but had something else to say. “Lately they don’t print my letters. They used to. I suppose they have other interests.”
Grandpa’s words sounded sad to me. Perhaps even a tad resentful. Now, 23 years beyond my final semester in the college classroom, I can hear Grandpa’s words with a degree of empathy. While I have not been asleep since 1996, I sense anew at the close of this decade that the times are passing me by. I remember former connections and reach toward what seem to be current disconnections. I don’t always understand what’s going on around me. My opinions often are dated.
Yesterday’s New York Times, in its end of year, end of decade facts and features seemed to highlight many elements of contemporary life — people and ideas and facts and trends from which I am removed — uninformed, under-informed, and naive. It set me to rumination.
Whistles and toys have done a number on the field of communication. What I studied at Syracuse University in the early 60s now seems out of mode. Imagine, we were drilled on the concept of objective reporting, the use of the four Ws and one H, the role of the newspaper and magazine in society. We considered the impact of mass media, the mass audience, the destruction of individuality. We wrote our homework on typewriters.
Since then a plethora of interests and inventions have come our way, due to internationalism, the world wide web, engineering, political hegemonies and of course human curiosity. On my MacBook Pro, I enter the words “vocabulary of the internet” and am dumbfounded.
Nor have I been able to keep up with academic fields tangential to my own interest in communication. For instance, I have only peripheral understanding of Marxism, Feminism, Queer Theory, Deconstruction, Multiculturism and/or New Historicism. I feel inadequate to speak or write intelligently about the latest developments in the fields of art, psychology, and linguisics. Atonal music confuses me. If I enrolled in a college science or mathematics course, I’d need a tutor.
Similarly I am increasingly disentwined from lots of popular activies: professional sports, pop music including rap, happy hour, on-line betting, twittered relationships, current movies, e-seminars and many etceteras. My shopping habits are outdated.
How, then, do I feel about my decreasing relevance? Am I suffering from rejection? Are my resentments and jealousies increasing? Is my only viability to run faster in order to catch up?
No. No. No. And No.
This is not the time to replicate a mid-life career, to hold tight to an expertise, to be a know-it-all. Rather, it is a time to think creatively about what later life is for. I think I know what it is for and thus I will make appropriate New Year’s resolutions …
to be attentive
to be appreciative
to be kindness
to be compassionate
to be peaceful
to be encouraging
and to be grateful.
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