Golden Years

I volunteered at a senior center yesterday. I helped to serve and clean up lunch for the seniors. They usually have some sort of ‘entertainment’ there during their Wednesday lunches and yesterday it was story day. Some of the people there told a story that meant something to them.

One man’s turn at the mic in particular touched me. The story started out benignly enough. It was about him going to the store for his wife to pick up a few things and how thankful he was for the invention of the cell phone. He said that without it he would undoubtedly be in trouble for getting the wrong thing or perhaps forgetting something all together. Then he started talking about how as he was meandering down the aisles searching for the very specific food on the list his mind was churning. Wondering, worrying…has he provided enough for his wife, will they have enough money to make it through their golden years, could he have been a better husband, father, friend and employee? Has he always done the best he could for his family, etc? We are kindred spirits when it comes to this subject. I guess I was hoping that there would be a point in time that those worries would abate. He spoke in the end of ‘gentling’ his thoughts. I thought that was a lovely way to refer to it. Particularly because we are often our harshest critics, and I know that I personally could stand to be a little gentler with myself.