• Home
  • rainbow flagA Welcoming Congregation
  • Safe Congregation SealKeeping Safe
  • Capital Campaign
  • DONATE/REALM
  • TUCWomen
    • About TUCWomen
    • Join Us
    • Events
    • Contact
  • Contact
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport

10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - Ph: (203)227-7205 Sunday Services: 10:00 AM

Unitarian Universalist Association
  • Calendar
    • Calendar
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • ZOOM Instructions
    • Tips For Making Videos
    • Event & Space Reservations
    • TUUCWSocial Email List Ground Rules
  • Welcome Visitors
    • UU Orientation
    • Directions & Services
    • Special Ceremonies & Dedications
    • Our Congregational History
    • Our Faith
    • What is a Unitarian Universalist?
    • We are Unitarian Universalists
    • How did you become a Unitarian Universalist?
    • History of the Flaming Chalice
    • UU History in 8 Minutes
  • About Us
    • Our Mission Statement
    • Our Vision Statement
    • About Our Ministers
    • Committee on Ministry
    • Our Staff
    • Getting Involved
    • Board of Trustees
    • Governance
    • Healing and Resilience Task Force
    • Congregant Celebration
    • Pastoral Care Chaplains
    • The Caring Support Network
    • Our Welcoming Congregation
    • Photo & Video Galleries
    • Links – Beyond Our Walls
    • SOUNDINGS
    • Communications Guidelines
    • Events & Space Reservations
    • Pledging
  • Faith Formation
    • Welcome to Faith Formation at TUUCW
    • Faith Formation for Children and Youth 2023-24
    • This Week in Family Faith Formation
    • Faith Formation Programs 2023-24
    • Faith Formation Registration
    • Adult Faith Formation
    • Soul Matters
    • Keeping Safe
  • Social Justice
    • Welcome to Social Justice
    • Advocates for Prevention of Gun Violence
    • Beardsley School Committee
    • Immigration and Refugee Committee
    • KIVA Microfinance Committee
    • Racial Justice Committee
    • Westbridge Coalition
  • Music Program
    • Our Minister of Music
    • The Music Committee
    • The Bell Choir
    • The Choir (Women and Men)
    • Special Projects Choir
    • Once & Again Singers
    • Children’s Choir
    • Teen Choir
    • Sight-singing Classes
    • Cabaret
    • Voice Classes
    • Love Is the Spirit
    • Tune My Heart To Sing
    • Support Our Music Program
  • Sermons & Poetry
    • Minister’s Messages
    • Sermons – Audio
    • Sermons – Video
    • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
    • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
    • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
    • Intern Minister’s sermons
    • Guest Minister’s sermons
    • Poetry & Readings
    • Communications from Your Ministers
  • Live Stream

Dear Friends – March 26, 2012

March 27, 2012 by Rev. Frank Hall - Minister Emeritus

Dear Friends,

When I was young – very young – I wanted to be older. 

I remember how I looked forward to turning 16, so I could get my driver’s license. Wheels. It was 1956 and I bought my first car, a ’50 Ford coupe that had been in a front-end crash, so I got it for $125, money I earned working at Ralph Bishop’s take-out restaurant, and a Sunday paper route, and other odd jobs. I fixed the damaged front end myself and off I went.

How I loved that car! The freedom: time with the guys, and time alone with girl friends.

Then I looked forward to 21. I started teaching high school at 22, and I wanted to be older–to feel entitled to more respect from my 17 and 18 year old students. I went into ministry at age 30, and I looked forward to being 50, when my older congregants would see me as mature.

When I turned 60 I looked for a reverse gear, but the wheels of Life move only forward. I thought of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. He says, “When I was a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man I gave up childish ways.”

When I hit 60 I stopped wanting to be older. For awhile I befriended Mr. Denial and together we refused to accept the new number. I hadn’t willed or wanted it! The family gave me a party and they didn’t invite my new-found friend – they pasted the number 60 all over the place, including the cake!  They bought me a pinball machine, which helped me pretend I was a kid again. It pleased me. We put it in the basement where I could be alone with Mr. Denial.

In my mid-60’s I got Medicare, which pleased me. Sort of. I got a long-term care insurance policy, reluctantly. Then in my late-60’s I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which certainly did not please me, but I was glad to be on Medicare. Funny how that works. That’s when I started to look at this thing we call aging. I found myself seeing older people with a different pair of eyes – eyes that break through the denial and hold up mirrors.  Mr. Denial moved away.

The word retirement started popping up like Jack-in-the-box, all over the place. It came with a big smile in financial-planning ads, and a more serious face in life-insurance ads, and happy-sounding ads telling me ‘how to have a wonderful retirement.’ Everywhere I turned it seemed that the word retirement was taking aim at me and I found myself playing dodge ball, again, as we did on the playground at Gleason School in West Medford in the 1940’s.

Psalm 90 says, “The days of our years are threescore and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

I have a replica of the ’50 Ford coupe in my office, as a reminder that I was once 16, and glad of it. I’ve had my ‘threescore and ten,’ and though I no longer look forward to ‘being older,’ like I did as a child, I have a deepened appreciation for each day, and a heightened sense of satisfaction for the work that has nourished and challenged me – an appreciation for you.

Rollo May summarizes it nicely:  “To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive – to grief, sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment, and an intensity of consciousness we did not know was possible before.”  Aging has its benefits – instead of wanting to be older we accept the fact we can’t get younger, so we ’kiss the joy as it flies.’

Frank

Filed Under: Dear Friends Tagged With: Dear Friends, Rev. Frank Hall

SEARCH

Categories

  • Events
    • Announcements
  • Interdependent Web
  • Minister's Message
  • Order of Service
  • Readings
  • Sermons
    • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
    • Guest Minister's sermons
    • In The Interim
    • Intern Minister's Sermons
    • Minister's Message
    • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus
      • chautauqua
      • Dear Friends
      • Rev. Frank Hall's sermons
    • Rev. John T. Morehouse's sermons
    • Rev. Shelly Thompson, Assistant Minister for Faith Formation
  • This Week at Church
  • TUCWomen Blog
  • Uncategorized
    • Uncategorised
  • Upcoming Sermons
  • Minister’s Messages
  • Sermons – Audio
  • Sermons – Video
  • Rev. John T. Morehouse’s sermons
  • From Your Senior Minister: Facing Grace
  • Facing Grace – Rev. John’s blog
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – sermons
  • Rev. Frank Hall, Minister Emeritus – Dear Friends
  • Intern Minister’s sermons
  • Guest Minister’s sermons
  • Readings & Poetry
  • Communications from Your Ministers

     The Unitarian Universalist
     Congregation in Westport
     is a member congregation of the
     Unitarian Universalist Association

      CLICK HERE if you have any questions      about The Unitarian Universalist
    Congregation in Westport

Congregational Hours: Tuesday - Friday
9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Summer Hours:
July & August until after Labor Day:
Tuesday - Friday 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM

CLICK HERE to contact the web master

CLICK HERE to opt in to receive
the Weekly Congregational Email Blast

Membership Directory June 2023

Copyright © 2023 · Visit us at The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport - 10 Lyons Plains Rd., Westport, CT 06880 - All rights reserved.