Pete Townshend, talkin’ ‘bout his generation, wrote, “I hope I die before I get old.” Now that Townshend is 76, I wonder how he feels when he hears the song that he recorded with The Who in 1965.
If I read him right, I suspect he can still sing along with his bandmate Roger Daltrey, meaning every word. Perhaps it’s even more pertinent at the age of 76 than it was at 21. Getting old is about more than the number of times you’ve circled the sun. Getting old is getting stuck, getting resistant to seeing what’s possible. Most of all, I think, getting old is ceasing to live fully.
Recently, I attended two memorial services back-to-back. The services struck me deeply even though I didn’t have a close relationship with either of the people being memorialized. I was struck by how full and consequential the lives of these people were, both professionally and personally.
As I thought about it, I came to see that what was admirable about these people is not something reserved only for the few. It is available to any of us. They had lived (consciously or not) by Pete Townshend’s dictum: they died before they got old. I don’t mean their age. I mean, they didn’t hold back or withdraw from their lives or their loves. They didn’t grow dry and stale. They lived until they died (in hope of rising again).
I don’t mean to suggest Pete Townshend was plagiarizing, but Irenaeus of Lyons had a similar idea to Townshend’s in the 2nd century. He wrote: “the glory of God is a person fully alive.”
What we achieve professionally, whether we manage to forge close relationships with friends and family, whether we’re famous or anonymous – these things may vary according to our talents and temperaments and just plain luck. But we can decide not to stop living before we die. Our life is hidden in Christ and abundant life is his gift, available for us to reach out and grasp.
Can you hear the echo of Townshend’s hope to die before he gets old in the words of “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded?” “Oh, make me thine forever, and should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to thee.”
Prayer: You have given me life. Give me vitality, or a kick in the pants, or whatever it takes to live fully and glorify you. Amen.