AGE - The Great Equaliser

It was my Dad's 86th birthday on Sunday and the family gathered round - some very old folk and some very young kids. The old folk were, quite amazingly, more occupied with their cellular phones than the youngsters and although they may have been a little slower, they certainly didn't lack enthusiasm with every feature on their phones.

Looking into my father's face, it dawned on me that he is an old man. You probably wonder whether I am a little slow in this realisation, especially considering that I see him almost weekly, but I have always viewed him through the eyes of my own inner-child. The child that knew, without a doubt, that being cold, scared and thirsty at night was just temporary because Dad will soon be here to fix it all. The sound of footsteps late at night brings feelings of security and safety to my heart while for others, it often brings fear of uncertainty. My dad was a large, attractive, good-looking, powerful, kind and caring man.

It got me thinking . . . When I look into the mirror, I don't see myself through the eyes of a child. Like most of us, I view myself through the looking glass of criticism and judgement; noticing the wrongs instead of the rights. When I was young and the world was black and white, it was so easy to make a separation between pretty and ugly. These two words arranged themselves on opposite points of a scale or ruler starting with pretty, followed by not-so-pretty and not-too-ugly and ending with ugly. Fat and thin are another two words that play this tug-of-war game with chubby and curvaceous as a rope. Cute is probably the most frequently used word to indicate the turning point where pretty and ugly meet and where fat and thin compromise.

With the passing of Time, my world has become less black and white, with grey increasing at an alarming rate. Be warned . . . when you cross the bridge of age, you will find yourself where I am now: where pretty is not so pretty anymore and fat is a perspective rather than a number on a scale. Ugly suddenly becomes an attitude and thin is more associated with skin that anything else. The Great Equaliser is at work and doing a darn good job of it!!

My Dad is still large - now more so in the heart than the body; he is still attractive - especially to cats, dogs, birds and lizards; he is the best-looking man on earth, powerful, kind and caring to so many more. His reach has increased at a phenomenal rate and he still makes me feel safe and secure. That, I know, without a doubt!!!

See for yourself. Depicted in the picture on the left is my dad in a Blessing that I built for him for his 86th birthday.