Our 8-year-old grandson has taken to calling us “the oldies.”  We take it as a term of affection.  It’s also true. We are oldies. I will celebrate my 75^th birthday next month and enter what J.I. Packer called being old. Not young-old and not old-old. Just old.

For all our lives we Baby Boomers have dominated our world. Suburbs and schools were built for us in the 1950s. We warned against trusting anyone over 30 in the 1960s. Our music, our movies, our politics, and our preferences have defined reality for decades. Now the youngest of us are receiving monthly Social Security checks and the oldest of us are finding ourselves in assisted living and nursing care facilities.

We may be old, but still we dominate.

A current best-seller, Gerontocracy in America, by Yale historian Samuel Moyn looks primarily at the political ramifications of our generation’s refusal to go gentle into that good night, but considers, as well, other ways Boomers hold onto power, position, and possessions.

Maybe it is just a case of turn-around being fair play. Gen-Xers like Moyn along with younger Millennials and Zoomers are taking aim at the generation that ignored Gen-Xers, belittled Millennials, and now mostly roll our eyes at our Zoomer children and grandchildren. They want us to go away. Not only do we need to vacate our political offices (good idea!), we should hurry up and pass on our $100 trillion of accumulated wealth, sell our houses, travel less, maybe even make a final exit.

Bashing the Boomers has become something of a cottage industry among the various influencers of the younger generations. They can write and say what they will, however, I will continue to deposit my Social Security check and use my lifetime senior pass to the national parks. We have no plans to sell our four-bedroom house, and we will travel for as long as we are able to heft a suitcase. Take that, Xers, Millennials, and Zoomers.

But maybe there is something to this Boomer bashing. A comment on a Presbyterian pastors’ forum caught my eye the other day. It began with a post about the lack of younger elders at presbytery and general assembly meetings and how we might encourage attendance by our younger generation of church officers. But then someone made a comment about the prevalence of older folks at such meetings and the Boomer bashing began. Actually, they were all quite kind but made it clear it might be best if we stayed home.

The bashers have a point.

Of course, I never would, but too often I hear my Boomer colleagues begin what they want to say at a meeting with something like, “As a former…” or “In my experience as…” or “Back in ’97 when…” No wonder Boomer bashing is all the thing. We really are tiresome. Someone has said that older people are better at remembering and younger people are better at imagining. Please, Boomers, let’s spare them our memories. The good old days are likely not to have been as good as we remember (and, yes, Zoomers and Millennials, your hoped-for socialist future may not turn out so well, either).

The Book of Proverbs begins with words of wisdom from an older father to his younger son (Proverbs 1-7). The apostle Paul envisions a church where the younger members learn from the wisdom and experience of the older members (Titus 2:1-8). No Boomer bashing or snarky comments about Millennials in the church. In fact, a place of honor for the oldies.

So, I may attend another presbytery meeting or two, but will be wise to take James’ advice to “be quick to hear, slow to speak” (James 1:19).

“A Self-Help Influencer with Troubles of Her Own.” The headline appeared in last week’s New York Times and offered enough bait for me to click the link. Full disclosure: I think the existence of “influencers” is a bitter indictment of the sad state of our culture, and I wondered if I might take delight in the woes of one member of a breed of such pernicious persons. I was not disappointed

The article is about an influencer who, according to the Times, “millions look to (…) for advice on how to achieve contentment and maintain healthy relationships.” It turns out that she has achieved little contentment in her own life and that her personal relationships are a disaster, even according to the New York Times, which, in its current iteration, has not seen a left-leaning relationship trend it cannot endorse (currently all in for polyamory). The on-again off-again estrangement with her two partners and the lawsuits filed against one another do not paint a picture of contentment and healthy relationships.

The English Standard Bible translates the Greek word κανῶν as “area of influence” (kanon – from which we get the English word “canon” – a standard or rule of faith and conduct). As Paul writes to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 11:13-18) he speaks of the area of influence God has assigned. He desires that he might influence others for the sake of the Gospel. Continue reading →

This past week we visited our daughter, her husband, and our 8-year-old grandson.  In addition to Star Wars and Legos, the 8-year-old loves karate and, related, the old Chuck Norris television series, Walker, Texas Ranger, where the Chuck Norris Texas Ranger typically uses his karate skills to apprehend the villain of the week.

During our visit we were able to attend one of our grandson’s karate lessons and watch an episode of Texas Ranger (and Episode VI of Star Wars). I preferred the karate lesson.

At the karate studio, the sensei (teacher) instructs the karatekas (students) mostly by demonstration. The sensei makes a move and the karatekas mimic what they see. It is a fascinating process. I’m not sure most adults would fare any better, but among the under-10 set there are many lapses in replicating the moves of the sensei. Of course, because the sensei typically faces the karatekas as he or she teaches, the left-right mirror image can be confusing, but at other times the student just doesn’t see what the teacher has done – how high the knee was lifted or whether the punch was a lunge or a hook. Perfection comes through repetition. Continue reading →

If all goes well, Becky and I will be in Memphis visiting family about the time you read this. We should escape our upper Midwest smoke for some deep south heat and humidity – headed towards 100 degrees and 82 percent humidity in Memphis on Monday. Still, it will be warm enough in Indiana while we’re gone, with no or little rain in the forecast. Fortunately, we have a programmable sprinkler system to help keep the lawn half-way healthy. Every other morning the sprinkler heads will pop up and spray their life-giving water on the thirsty grass. 30 minutes for each section. Besides that, not only will the lawn receive its measured dose of water while we’re gone, if it does rain, the system knows not to add more moisture to the wet ground. The WR2 Wireless Sensor is an electronic rain gauge, and once a half an inch of rain falls, the irrigation system is turned off for 24 hours.  No wasted water. No sprinklers spraying while rain is falling. The idea is to keep the lawn green, to conserve water, and to save money on the water bill. It’s a nice system.

The Psalms begin with a description of the righteous person. Like our lawn that needs water in order to remain healthy in the hot summer, the righteous person needs God’s word to remain healthy in the droughts and storms of life. The righteous person is one who “delights in the law of the Lord” and meditates on it day and night. The law of the Lord, the torah, the written word of God given as a gift to the faithful. (Psalm 1:2)

The psalmist paints a picture of the righteous person as being “like a tree planted by streams of water.” (Psalm 1:3) Continue reading →

It was a bad customer service experience, and I was the victim. But I don’t want to talk about my victimhood. I’ll get over it. The short version of the story is that we had made a service appointment several weeks ago with a promise that we would receive text-message reminders as the service date neared. Well, the service date came and went with no reminders and no service. In fact, the reason for what we discovered was a cancellation was quite understandable, and, after all, it was a scheduled service call, not an emergency. The frustrating lapse in customer service came after the cancellation. The first time I called about the cancellation, I was told that it couldn’t be helped, but that I might be put on a waiting list for future service, but that they had no idea whether the new service call might be in a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months. Stuff happens. Yes, I was frustrated, and I am afraid my frustration showed – not in expletives or accusations but in tone.

I waited a week to make my next call, and as my frustration subsided, I vowed to myself not to add to the tension and anger that fills too much of our social interaction in our age of victimhood.

Back to customer service below. Continue reading →