7.7.2025 – grow older, care less

grow older, care less
about others’ opinions
that’s liberating

The article, The thing about ‘ageing gracefully’: whatever you call it, I’ll do it my way, by Ashton Applewhite (7/7/2205 in The Guardian) had the tease, “One thing I’ve noticed is that as they grow older, people tend to care less about others’ opinions. Sometimes that’s liberating.”

And I thought, does that go too far?

I don’t want get older and care less about other’s opinions in general.

About other’s opinions about me I gave up on a long time ago and it was VERY liberating!

Actually I have a strong sense of self justification which allows me to over come any one else’s opinion of myself.

But I hope I always CARE for other people’s opinions, especially when their opinion is wrong and needs gentle correcting.

You know what I mean.

I liked how Ms. Applewhite ended her article, writing:

I’m not defying the same way they are.

I’m not taking up pole dancing or skateboarding.

And I’ll never be among the gracefuls, no matter how hard I try.

Ageing is complicated, and we each have to find our own way through it.

My path lies in rejecting this culture’s ageist, sexist, ableist drumbeat: the mainstream narrative that the way to relate to ageing is to resist it.

I’ve discussed this with countless friends over the years, and asked quite a few what they thought it meant to age gracefully.

My favorite response came in conversation with organizer Julia Rhodes Davis.

“The more we turn and face the truth – that we are all ageing, that death is coming for us all – the more alive we become,” said Julia.

“That’s my definition of ‘ageing gracefully.’”

I’ll take it.

To me, it means growing older unapologetically, truthfully and in community.

I’ll call it ageing with grace.

7.6.2025 – remember always

remember always
that all of us are descended
from those immigrants

Adapted from Remarks to the Daughters of the American Revolution, April 21, 1938, Washington, D.C. by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he said:

Remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.

And I am particularly glad to know that today you are making this fine appeal to the youth of America. The importance to this rising generation, to our sons and grandsons, and great grandsons, we cannot over-estimate; the importance of what we are doing this year, in our own generation, to keep alive the spirit of American democracy, the spirit of opportunity, the kind of a spirit that has led us as a nation, not in a small group but as a nation, to meet the very great problems of the past.

We look for a younger generation that is going to be more American than we are. We are doing the best that we can, and yet we can do better than that, we can do more than that:

Let’s say that again … out loud maybe.

We cannot over-estimate;

the importance of what we are doing this year,

in our own generation,

to keep alive the spirit of American democracy,

the spirit of opportunity,

the kind of a spirit that has led us as a nation,

not in a small group but as a nation,

to meet the very great problems of the past.

We look for a younger generation that is going to be more American than we are.

We are doing the best that we can, and yet we can do better than that, we can do more than that:

7.5.2025 – each generation

each generation
so far, has been blessed, with chance
to conduct itself …

I want not only to join with you in an expression of thankfulness for the nation’s mighty past, but to join with you in expressing the resolution that we of to-day will strive in our deeds to rise level to those deeds which in the past made up the nation’s greatness.

Each generation so far, in this country, has been blessed, first, with the chance to resolve, and to put into effect the resolution so as to conduct itself that the next generation in turn would have the opportunity to feel a like gratitude.

It is a good thing, on the Fourth of July and on all other occasions of national thanksgiving, for us to come together, and we have the right to express our pride in what our forefathers did, and our joy in the abundant greatness of this people.

We have the right to express those feelings, but we must not treat greatness achieved in the past as an excuse for our failing to do decent work in the present, instead of a spur to make us strive in our turn to do the work that lies right at hand.

If we so treat it we show ourselves unworthy to come here and celebrate the historic past of the nation.

In 1861, when Lincoln called to arms you men of the great war, how did you show your loyalty to the men of 1776, to the spirit of ’76? You showed it by the way in which your hearts leaped to the performance of the task that was ready in those days.

President Theodore Roosevelt on July 4, 1903.

Each generation so far …

So far …

Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later.

We must not treat greatness achieved in the past as an excuse for our failing to do decent work in the present, instead of a spur to make us strive in our turn to do the work that lies right at hand.

7.4.2025 – try obedience

try obedience
to Constitution, laws
don’t you think that’d work?

According to the Library of Congress – Mr. Lincoln’s first portrait with a full beard …

On February 23, 1861, Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington, DC for his March 4th Inaugural as President of the United States.

Meeting in Washington at the same was the Peace Conference of 1861, which according to Wikipedia, was a meeting of 131 leading American politicians in February 1861, at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the eve of the American Civil War. The conference’s purpose was to avoid, if possible, the secession of the eight slave states from the upper and border South that had not done so as of that date. The seven states that had already seceded did not attend.

An invitation was passed along by the Conference to meet with Mr. Lincoln and he replied that he would receive members at 9:00 p.m.

Mr. Lucius E. Chittenden, a Vermont delegate to the Conference, later wrote of that meeting:

There was only one occurrence which threatened to disturb the harmony and good humor of the reception. In reply to a complimentary remark by Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Rives had said that, although he had retired from public life, he could not decline the request of the Governor of Virginia that he should unite in this effort to save the Union. ” But,” he continued, ” the clouds that hang over it are very dark. I have no longer the courage of my younger days. I can do little — you can do much. Everything now depends upon you.”

“I cannot agree to that,” replied Mr. Lincoln. “My course is as plain as a turnpike road. It is marked out by the Constitution. I am in no doubt which way to go. Suppose now we all stop discussing and try the experiment of obedience to the Constitution and the laws. Don’t you think it would work?”

Here today on the 4th of July, 2025, 250 years after Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and George Washington being appointed to the command of the Continental Army, we seem to have lost our way.

I found that difficult to understand as I feel that our course is as plain as a turnpike road.

It is marked out by the Constitution.

I am in no doubt which way to go.

Suppose now we all stop discussing and try the experiment of obedience to the Constitution and the laws.

As Mr. Lincoln asked, Don’t you think it would work?

Sadly, as Bruce Catton wrote, Lincoln’s path might indeed be clear—to him, at least, if not to all of his fellow countrymen—but a general appeal for obedience to the Constitution meant nothing at all, because the Constitution meant such different things to different men.

Maybe at one time, this might have been seen as part of the beauty if not majesty of the Constitution of the United States.

Not something used, as it was in 1861, to wreck it.

7.3.2025 – cultivate spirit

cultivate spirit
to do justice, love mercy
act with charity

250 years ago today, General George Washington took formal command of the Continental Army.

According to published reports, he made a short speech and read verse eight from the 101st Psalm, “Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.”

8 years later when he gave up his command, General Washington sent out a Circular Letter to the States, which he wrote on June 8, 1783 as the commander in chief, at his headquarters in Newburgh, New York.

This circular was directed to the governors and states of the new nation.

I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the Field, and finally, that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the Characteristicks of the Divine Author of our blessed Religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy Nation.

be pleased to dispose us all,

to do Justice,

to love mercy,

and to demean ourselves with that Charity,

humility and

pacific temper of mind …