BBC Radio
© John Denney 5 May 2005
Shake, Rattle and Roll
My car’s developed a nasty noise. It got through its MOT with flying colours
the other day. But it sort of creaks
when it’s parked on a slope and you get in or out. The car’s not so new as it used to be. My knowledgeable pals say that it’s my
bushes. I thought they were green things
that grew in your garden, but I’ll have to believe ‘em, ‘cause I haven’t got a
clue about cars. Check the oil, blow up
the tyres, and fill up with windscreen washer fluid and petrol: that’s about my
limit.
I’ve developed a few nasty rattles myself. There’s a loud crack from my knee regions
sometimes when I stand up. And I can
feel a certain creaking when I stretch up to get something from an upper
shelf. A couple of years ago I triggered
a bout of tennis elbow when I tugged one of those little polythene fruit bags
out of the rack in the supermarket.
Maybe I need an MOT! But
at least I have the satisfaction of seeing that my knowledgeable pals are no
less decrepit than I am.
There’s no getting away from it. Everyone’s older than they used to be. Some people spend fortunes trying to deny
that fact. I saw a small jar of
anti-wrinkle cream on sale in a chemist’s the other day. For sixty quid! And more and more people are paying good
money for cosmetic surgery that they think will make them look younger, at
least for a year or two.
Maybe one of the reasons for the cosmetic surgery
industry is that in Britain and the prosperous West, everything’s geared up to
young people. In the rest of the world
but not here, it seems, the elders of the village or the tribe or the nation
are accorded great respect for their knowledge, experience and wisdom. Old age is something looked forward to, a
desirable state to be reached one day.
That’s why the apostle Paul wrote this in the Bible: Children, do what your parents tell you. This is only
right. "Honour your father and mother" is the first commandment that
has a promise attached to it, namely, "so you will live well and have a
long life."[1] But there’s something he adds: Fathers, don't exasperate your children by coming down hard
on them. Take them by the hand and lead them in the way of the Master[2].