A couple of days ago I dragged my son round ‘Pick A Part’ looking for bit for our car. For those of you who have no idea what Pick A Part is, it’s a wrecker where you pull the bits off yourself. It’s kind of like going to a smorgasbord of car parts.
Oddly enough the advert outside suggests you stay all day and bring your lunch. It makes the whole thing look like good family fun - as long as you’re over 15. As far as I was concerned it was.
Not everyone is into old vehicles, but there are many New Zealanders, like myself, who like keeping older cars going. I understand that it’s not particularly environmental, but it is fun and it means I’m recycling; at least that’s my take on it.
Even though I like new cars, I can’t afford one. My current project is 20 years old and going just fine. Like most things mechanical, it might look old, but there’s not much difference between a new car and an older one. The combustion engine is the same as it’s always been, it just has better metals and technology: the principal hasn’t changed at all. Wheels are ‘still’ common on all cars, the brakes still work the same way, there’s a steering wheel and, if you’re lucky, a heater.
In reality mechanical changes are incremental, never monumental.
Society discards things very quickly. When a device no longer works properly, repairing it is rarely the first thought. Mostly we replace it. Part of the reason is that obsolescence is built-in and we have grown to accept it as normal.
On the whole I’m considered as something of a dinosaur by my kids and their friends. Whether I like it or not I’m aging. Currently I’m still classified as having something to offer by the population at large, but that will change. In a few years it won’t matter what I have to offer, age will stand as an obstacle to ability, wisdom and experience.
To some extent this is a generalisation, but a generalisation only exists because it’s generally true. So why do we view age as a symbol of irrelevance? Perhaps it’s because youth, energy, perceived beauty and the latest technology are the essence of productivity and value. Yet there’s something missing.
Age is no guarantee of real human growth: there are as many idiotic seniors in the world as there are ridiculous teenagers. Yet comparatively there are vast numbers of sixty to eighty year olds who have refined life skills and a view of the world that makes their perspectives and involvement not just desirable, but essential.
A well lived life of spiritual, intellectual and emotional development and reflection is considered in the Bible as a position of honour. Engaging with those who’ve been round-a-while always means you leave with something you needed but didn’t have before. Unlike Pick A Part, most mature members of society are not wrecks. Like Pick A Part, they are a massive resource for the present. God designed it that way.
Digby Wilkinson 2009