LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE. MARFAM’s weekly e-newsletter

Quite a few of the people I interact with regularly are already 80 and beyond and presumably navigate and operate in the slow lane as we continue to look ahead. At my Festive Birthday lunch on the occasion of my 80th birthday, we did commemorate grandparents and the elderly as Pope Francis invited the whole Church to do.   Five of my seven grandchildren were with us and I am now in the Pilanesberg National Park with some of them and their family.  I am now a great-granny as my son and his wife are now grandparents themselves to a delightful and very eco-friendly baby it would appear.   I couldn’t believe it when this seven-month old mite tucked into cucumber and broccoli with real enjoyment.   My children didn’t do that, but I believe one of my grandsons was a broccoli baby.  I don’t believe this granny is responsible for that but it shows that eco-friendliness is not necessarily a completely new thing. But we continue to look ahead.

In my speech/testimony at the party (I wasn’t allowed to make it a workshop) I did share that Chris, my late husband, their dad and granddad, was engaged in environmental action, not just awareness-raising, as his business included gas cooling and dust suppression. However 25 years ago the awareness and the need to combat global warming and air pollution did not exist to the same extent as it does now. Certainly cleaner coal-powered electricity was already an issue, but not being addressed as it should have been.  Can we say “we didn’t know” and are therefore not responsible and do we need to do more than acknowledge that we are stealing the future from our children.   Do we ever ask their forgiveness for this crime against humanity, but also against all of creation?   We don’t, and I am not sure that the parent generation and the youth, while there is greater concern. are actually doing quite enough either for more generations after them.  

I always enjoy a few days in the Pilanesberg.   I used to drive around mainly looking out for the big five plus a few more, lions, leopards, elephants, buffalos, rhinos, cheetah’s, hyenas etc. But I am still learning that there is much more to nature conservation and preventing loss of biodiversity. There is a whole range of systems, some animals are carnivorous, some herbivorous, some omnivorous. Birds eat insects and bugs which eat leaves in a vast cycle of creation. And the type of vegetation and the soil on which it grows can also affect its nutritious value. I got pretty involved in the build up to my party as my children were more busy workwise than I was. So I made up some giant paper dandelions for an event to help my daughter.  Little did I know that apart from the SA spekboom which has a good number of health and environmental benefits, dandelions are also edible and very nutritious, as many local plants are. .  In  working on this project I kept forgetting the dandelion’s name and for some reason my mind kept calling it a dragonfly.  The excuse I give, as I explained in my speech is that I’m getting like Joe Biden, also guilty of forgetting names in his speeches.  The point is that such is life in the slow lane at our age.

Pope Francis spoke of the loneliness and abandonment of the elderly so often today.   Well, in my driving around the park here I didn’t come across any of the family herds of elephants ,but I did meet up with two elderly lone giants, bulls, I presume. In creation there are also those realities where the old have lost their place, their role, their usefulness and are left to die, sometimes alone, sometimes it is caused by others.    We, humans are not like that as Pope Francis reminds us in his message.  The dignity of each person must be respected in every possible way.   We may not all want to live on indefinitely in the slow lane, but we do want to be treated with respect and dignity even if we only meander along in life’s way.    TR  FAMILY WEEKLY E-NEWSLETTER 31 July 2024  

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY.      GRANDPARENTS  TREASURES

July 31.   Evelyn sighed a little and smiled a little as the luncheon club met for the last time in the month of grandparents.  She said, “Many of the scripture readings this month, that we have used to reflect on have been quite harsh. The writings of the prophets are often judging the evil and the harm of those days.  Life is not much different and there are still prophets, old and young, in the Church and society that preach about the need for conversion.  But what is our ultimate aim.  We’re old and our days are numbered but we are still wishing for and working for the treasure that Jesus spoke about like a pearl of great price.   What is my pearl and what is yours today?   

Reflect, share, scripture:   The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, or a pearl of great price. A man sold everything he had to buy the field or buy the pearl.  Matt 13:44-46 . Pope Francis:   Faith has untold power to inspire and sustain our respect for others, for believers come to know that God loves every man and woman with infinite love and thereby confers infinite dignity upon all humanity. Christ shed his blood for each of us and no one is beyond the scope of his universal love.  If we go to the ultimate source of that love which is the very life of the triune God we encounter in the community of the three Divine Person the origin and perfect model of all life in society.  Theology continues to be enriched by its reflection on this great truth.  FT 85.  ACTION AND PRAYER.    At our time in life as elderly and grandparents what are we doing about our treasure, are we selling or buying or holding on with gratitude to the treasure that we have worked for?