After conducting a series of interviews with elderly people, author Don
Gold published the book Until the Singing Stops: A
Celebration of Life and Old Age in America.
Gold loved and admired his grandmother, and it was the memory of her
that moved him to meet and learn from other elderly people. He recalls that on
the way to one of his interviews, he got lost on a dusty country road in
Missouri. When he pulled into a farm to ask for directions, a teenager came up,
listened, shrugged his shoulders, and then replied, “Don’t know.” So he drove
on. A few miles farther down the road, he stopped again at a farmhouse. The
farmer, who was an old man, graciously gave him flawless directions.
Perhaps, Gold mused, that experience sums up what he was searching for
when the memory of his grandmother sent him out to find people like her. He was
looking for someone to guide him in his life journey.
If you’re “young,” seek out older people who have been drinking deeply
from God’s love and goodness throughout their life. They have wisdom to share
that will help you so that you also might flourish and grow in your faith (Ps.
92:12-14).