Are there any benefits of aging?
What are the benefits of growing old?
I woke up this morning older than I was yesterday. I have been waking up older every day for my entire life. That’s a lot of days. A lot of growing towards “old”. Sometimes I wonder if there are any benefits of aging and immediately I thought of my rusty old truck.
I had a vintage Ford F150 that looked older than its age. Its red-painted body, dinged, scratched, and rusty sported a yellow tailgate to replace the original that had succumbed to its hard living – including too much weight when it was younger.
This truck did everything we needed it to do. It hauled goats and ducks and puppy dogs – and hay and feed and bicycles.
It moved furniture to a new home, transported our trash to the dump, manure to the garden, and, oh yes, carried people to school, work, ball games, and church as its radio crooned country-western songs along the way. Except for driving a bit slower because the springs complained with every bump in the road, we never thought much about the age of that truck. It was old but it had charm, purpose, and style. And great capacity!
Some day when my tailgate no longer matches my hood, and my springs are loose and I groan with every burden I carry, I want to be described the same way.
With charm, purpose, style, and great capacity!
How to age with charm, purpose,
style, and capacity
Let’s consider the vintage pickup truck as a model for how we can grow old with style along with charm, purpose, and capacity. We put on miles every day of our lives. Some are ‘hard miles’. Carrying heavy burdens up treacherous mountain roads, commonly called ladders of success.
When we are young it seems most of our journeys are uphill. Raising children, finding a career, creating a home, and putting pieces back together when things fall apart. We drive ourselves hard as if getting somewhere wasn’t going to happen unless we kept our foot on the accelerator.
And when we hit potholes we are sent flying. This kind of driving takes its toll on the chassis as well as the engine. By middle age, we are using additives to keep that motor running and making frequent visits to a body shop for detailing. And do we lighten the loads we are trying to carry? Not usually. Those daily loads are habitual, even though we feel our springs losing their bounce.
So let’s talk about these characteristics of an old truck
Charm as a benefit of growing older
What exactly creates charm, especially in something whose ragged interior is covered with an old army blanket and whose surface is pocked with scars, dings and rust from its many travels?
For the truck, charm comes from its idiosyncrasies as a one-of-a-kind vehicle full of stories about the cause of the dent in the middle of the cab roof, or a cranky exhaust that only coughs going uphill — and sighs with relief on the downslope.
Brand new shiny trucks off the showroom floor have none of these quirks or stories to go with them. So too with our lives.
Charm comes from the stories collected as we travel along life’s roadways with its many ups and downs.
A cough may be a chronic response to going uphill after a lifetime of filtered Camels, with an unmistakable sigh when reminiscing about the satisfaction of a habit that no longer controls a life.
Purpose in later life
In theory, a shiny new truck on the showroom floor has the same purpose as the rusty piece of farm equipment. But beneath the new wax job on the fancy
truck there lie only ideas of what it will be called to do.
The salesman will describe every purpose possible — how it will benefit the buyer and solve all his problems, or at least those related to transportation.
But the purpose for the new truck is still a vision. An idea. A promise.
The old red truck with a yellow tailgate knows its purpose to the core of its being.
It has body memory for moving people, for carrying burdens, for providing shelter in the rain and warmth in the cold.
I have lived long enough to also have body memory for my purpose. It is no longer theory to say my purpose is to move people, to carry burdens, and provide warmth and shelter for those without them. It is a gift of being ‘old’ that makes my purpose real in the sinews of my being.
Style as a benefit of aging
Style can be looked at in two ways. There is showroom styling, the sort of appearance that is seen when on display on store mannequins or fashion show runways. And there is a unique styling that defines a person (or a truck) as one of a kind.
This style may include red hats or purple sneakers. Or shorts and sandals with a straw hat.
Throughout life, we often try on many different styles. I had my pleated skirt and blazer years, a short season of sundresses in summer, and corduroy jumpers in the winter.
When the fashion tables turned I fully welcomed pants and jeans and hiking boots. I will never be known as the grandma with the flowery apron over a simple dress. Nor the fashion plate of designer clothes and fancy earrings.
I will never be the showroom truck with chrome bumpers, running boards, and window decals. But do I have style? You bet! Orthotic sneakers, baggy jeans, and Wrangler shirts from the thrift store.
I do try to have my tailgate match my hood, however.
Capacity changes with growing older
When it comes to capacity, I suppose a shiny new truck with its sturdy springs can carry heavier loads without wavering, but I would never put in loads of things that might get it dirty. Oh no.
But the old red Ford easily welcomes a ton of chicken manure or hundreds of pumpkins to and from the garden.
Once upon a time, my capacity was a lot ‘cleaner’ and by some measure a lot bigger.
The fact that I can no longer carry a forty-hour workweek and raise children (and pumpkins) and chase chickens all at the same time may be felt like a loss.
However, what’s in my truck bed has changed as surely as it did for the old red Ford. Today I hold many concerns of the world, my community, and my loved ones in a practice of prayer.
I carry them in all kinds of weather and road conditions.
My capacity to forgive and to love the unlovable is ten times what it was thirty years ago.
And my capacity to enjoy life continues to grow with every new blossom in the spring, with all the squirrels gathering nuts in the fall, and with every snowflake that adorns the rooftops in winter.
If your life is similar to the showroom truck, enjoy it fully and take good care of it. On the other hand, if your mileage gauge has topped out and your rear end has a mismatched tailgate, remember all the charm, purpose, style, and capacity you have at this point in your life. And don’t be afraid to toot your own horn!
[Photo Credits from Unsplash: red-truck by paulius-dragunas; old-farm-truck by matt-palmer; toy-truck by city-church; New-Ford by fourfour; overloaded-truck by priscilla-du-preez]
If you enjoyed this you may also enjoy “The Secret of Aging Well” or “What is the Purpose of Living”.
