Old fogeys of the world... Arise, unite

This week I was kindly relegated to the world of old fogeys by a minister friend of mine, identified as one who cannot embrace the whole of the wonderful world of the new. At first I was a little miffed but then the humor of it struck my funny bone and I have been laughing about my new status and membership in the Old Fogey Club, formerly known as the World Is Flat Club. Old fogeys get a bum rap, an unfair representation of their failings with no appreciation for their virtues. So here goes, my apologia for all of us old fogeys.
My first old fogey was my second grade teacher. She was an older woman who still dressed in the style of her youth, the thirties, with white hair pulled back in a bun at the nape of her neck. The cafeteria served tuna salad for lunch one day. It was my first taste of tuna salad and I didn’t like it. When Miss Smith came to line us up to return to the classroom, she told me to finish my tuna. In my first rebellion against organized authority, I refused. She ordered me to stay at the table and not return to the classroom until my plate was clean. After thirty boring minutes sitting alone in an empty cafeteria, I choked the offending tuna down and went to class where I promptly threw the tuna up. This was not a promising introduction to old fogeys.
My favorite old fogey was my Grandma. She continued to wear long hair in a braid wrapped into a bun when women were getting permanents for their short hair. Her shoes were sensible and her hats were placed four square on her head. There were no tilts allowed in hat placement. We were expected to help with chores. I carried out the slop jars in the morning and helped wash dishes at night. There was room for plenty of fun but the old fogey expectations were clear and understood. There was a great deal of security for me as a child in my relationship with Grandma. She knew who she was, where she came from and was perfectly at ease not fitting in with the younger generation.
When Michael interviewed for his first Associate Pastor position after seminary, one of the deacons asked him his position on the bodily resurrection. Fresh from avant garde theology classes and pumped full of Biblical erudition, he boldly proclaimed his skepticism about an actual bodily resurrection. The deacon, an old fogey, was not amused. The supernatural extraordinary qualities attributed to Jesus, his life and death, were not beliefs open to question for him. Michael says he almost got crucified over the resurrection. The old fogey voted for him anyway and was a stalwart reminder not to throw all our past beliefs away without careful consideration of the gifts they had to give.
So what are the gifts of being an old fogey? Usually you have lived long enough to have seen a great deal of change and know that not all change is good and that all change, even good ones, have side affects. Years of seeing the new inventions come in with exaggerations of the “good life” attached to their sale can cause skepticism in an old fogey. Does anyone remember the claims that computers would lead to a paperless society thus saving huge amounts of trees and trash? Now anyone can make multiple copies easily and most of us do. It seems to me that the days of carbon paper and mimeograph machines reduced paper use because they were time consuming to operate. The interstate system, built during my lifetime, was viewed as a way for our large country to connect easily and quickly. One of the unintended consequences was the near demise of train and bus travel. Now feeling the crunch of high gas prices, our resources for group transportation are limited.
Our friend Dan, who lives in Beijing, tells of the challenges of living in a country and a city in a state of rapid change. After visiting the doctor for a checkup, he returned for a followup appointment in a month and found the whole block razed with a new skyscraper begun. The changes are coming so quickly that people are having difficulty keeping up. Rapid growth and quick changes can leave an old fogey feeling rootless. Here today, gone tomorrow is not an easy way to live. China has lived for years with a society and culture that absorbed change gradually. Now explosions of growth are rocking this country that has a history that spans thousands of years. I wonder what the Chinese old fogeys are saying?
Old fogeys like me would say... Slow down. Not all that is old is useless or without value. Slow down. Evaluate change as it comes and incorporate it carefully into your life. Slow down. Growth is a good thing and keeps the juices flowing. But unchecked growth in the body is cancer. Slow down. Unexamined growth and change can lead to a life dominated by a constant search for the latest, the newest, the biggest, the best.
Just like the rich young man who came to Jesus asking what he had to do to be saved, we too have a difficult time imagining giving up all we possess for the sake of our souls. What really matters has stayed the same for centuries and transcends all cultures and all changes. “You should love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself.” This old fogey is not going to try to change that.