I have three great grandchildren so I am in a position to remember my own grandparents, my parents, my sibling, my childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age and later years. In addition, I get regular chances to observe the words and actions of older people, adults, and children. I have memories and impressions of three generations since me and the interactions between them.
When I think of the young parents of a child, I can remember being such a parent myself. Am I the ex-child or the ex-parent of a child? I am both, of course, and I find it to be fun to mentally move back and forth between memories of the two roles. Moving back and forth like that makes me wonder about my mother’s childhood. When I picture my mother as a child (I have seen photos of her at that age), I can see her mother and father in the picture. That sight leads me to picture her parents as children. You can see whether this is going. In the words of my great grandson standing in a grave yard of people who died at all ages, “the action never stops.”
When I think of the action of the generations, I usually picture a series of individuals in a line, each at a different stage of human aging. That is an easy picture but the truth is much more complicated. Each individual in the picture is also someone who used to be at the earlier stages and will age into the later stages. So who are they, really? What are they, really?
I have heard the basic story of “Tuck Everlasting”, the difficulties we would run into conceptually if we were to stop aging. But there are difficulties with grasping who we are inside the aging process, too. I am definitely not the 10 year old I once was. I can cite differences between that person then and me now. Same with the 20 year old and the other ages up to now. In heaven, which of my ages will be the one I am permanently given?
It is tempting to say I am all of the ages I have been but since the ages differ from each other, that idea doesn’t hold up. Maybe I have to say I am now this age but I won’t be tomorrow. There really is power in the Now.
