THe Ulysses Adventure

Here's one I found in my archives an rewritten. It's from an old sermon I want to use it in a book one day, when I get the time. 

There are four kinds of age.

--Calendar age.  This is our age according to the clock.  We can't do a thing about that
--Physical age.  This is the age of our body. We can be twenty on the calender, but have the body of a forty-year-old, or we can be sixty and have the body of a forty-year-old. 
--Identified age.  This is the time with which we choose to identify ourselves.
Have you ever heard some old guy say "Well in my day, we. . . “  If you are breathing, this is still your day.  You might as well enjoy this day while you have it, and stop griping about what year it isn't.  Enjoy the year that is.
--Spiritual age.  Spiritual age has nothing to do with your calendar age, but everything to do with your attitude towards time.  People who have lost their motivation are old. People who are still learning, growing, and doing are young.  

Tennyson's poem Ulysses says it well.

"Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. "

Tennyson's poem concerns a little known myth about the Greek hero Ulysses.  The story goes that near the end of his life, he gathered his old crew and sailed for the islands at the end of the world.

I love this idea--to make life's end an adventure.  Don't stop learning,  growing, or exploring.  Life ought to be more exciting towards the end, not more peaceful.

We seek adventure too early in life--when we are too young to know what we want or what awaits us.  Like a runner who expends his energy too early in the race, distance and fatigue wears us down, and we lose the spirit of adventure.  The world weighs down upon us, and we abandon our early dreams.  

As we get older, though we gain new opportunities. We do not have youth,  but we can still have courage and faith, so there is no reason to stop trying at the end of life than at the beginning, or to start something new at any age.

• George Bush Sr. celebrated his eightieth birthday by going skydiving. 
• Jack La Lane celebrated each birthday by breaking one of his own exercise records well into his eighties.  
•  Grandma Moses became a world-famous artist in her eighties, 
•  Ronald Reagan became president ad seventy-eight.  

 Those of us over fifty, consider our options. We sit and watch our grandchildren play, our bodies wear out, the world change, and our friends die, mourning the loss of beauty and opportunity,  or we can play,  use our bodies and our minds, make new friends, and change the world ourselves.
Though much has been taken, much abides, if only we are alive enough to take it.