The Scope of Life

I watched him struggle to get out of his car, wrangle his walker from the backseat and slowly saunter to the front door of the church. I opened the door and greeted him warmly. He greeted me with enthusiasm, even though as he ambled up the sidewalk, his head was bowed, and his body hunched over.

“Good to see you,” I said. “How are you,” I asked as I nodded toward the walker, which he did not have the last time I saw him. He smiled. “My back, scoliosis,” he said. “It’s just the way it is.”

He is right. A lot of folks have a curvature of the spine, and it worsens with age – thanks, gravity.

I watched him slowly make his way into the sanctuary, and for some reason, I flashed back to childhood and the struggles babies go through before they find their stride and begin to walk and run at the same time.

As we go through life, and if we are lucky, live a long life, we find ourselves facing the same stumbling blocks as babies – I will NOT go into the gory details.

Instead, I will go into the idea that babies do not really have a clue what is yet to come nor that they are indeed struggling. It’s just the way it is.?

Yet, as we age, we realize, we feel, we sometimes agonize over what is yet to come and the everyday struggles we face as our bodies wear away. The trouble is, we have accumulated too much knowledge.?

Imagine if we could just be ignorant, surprised, stymied, and then find that stubborn, I can do this streak that young children are blessed with as they learn to see, speak, stand, grab, question…

Perhaps we can. I find solace in the fact that I have been granted days to accept, process and live with the situations longer life and better living conditions bring. Perhaps my friend has too.

He most likely spends much time and effort getting up, dressed, and driving to Mass on time, and then doing the same in reverse order as he motors back home. It is what it is, all over again.

Joanne Williams is Associate Professor of Media Production and Communication at The University of Olivet.