‘Are you forty-one?’ the voice behind me asked. ‘Oh no, he’s much older than that,’ quipped the older companion.
Mum and daughter had reached the same row of seats as me for a concert by rock band, 10CC. With tickets for seats 42 and 43, I offered to move along so the mum could feel the benefit of the extra space offered by the aisle. With, she told me, two new knees (and a shoulder), this bright and well-dressed 79 year-old looked younger than her years. I told her so. ‘I’m a Dingles Girl,’ she replied.
A former employee of the once renowned department store, she clearly continued to take pride in her appearance and how she related to other people. She explained how 10CC wasn’t really her music – she preferred Queen and Motown. With bits of conversations between songs, it was a lovely encounter with her and her daughter and one I never expected.
As I have now found my own age to reach that of exactly half-way between this particular daughter and mum, my current decade has challenged my previous views and, has to be said, my prejudices about elderly people. I’m glad those prejudices have been challenged and that I have changed. Indeed, I know several people younger than me who speak and behave as if they were older. In many ways, we’re as old as we think we are. And the ‘Dingles Girl’ was a prime example of that.
Earlier that same day, Jane and I had been to see a stage version of Harper Lee’s classic story, To Kill a Mockingbird. It was superb. It’s a story about prejudice. Racial prejudice in 1930s Alabama. The Civil Rights Movement of later decades has always interested me and forms a storyline in my Eastwood Story novellas, so seeing this play had an added draw. The cast, the set, the choreography and of course the story was one of the best theatrical performances I have ever seen. It was an encounter which left me feeling emotionally wrung out. I never expected that either and am glad it happened.
There is a general opinion – prejudice, no less – that people in churches don’t like change. Indeed so much so, that that prejudice is used as a reason for not introducing new things. Therefore, change doesn’t happen, and God’s work can lie unfulfilled.
It’s my experience that people are far more open to new things and change than we expect. There is something about putting aside our prejudices. Allowing ourselves to be surprised. And to experience something we never expected.
Thank you for reading this post – please share it with others and subscribe.
You can listen to the podcast version of this post at:
Details of my books can be found at richardfrostauthor.com.