"No Time At All"

One of my friends from Chicago, now living in Ohio, recently fell in love. Steve is just a bit younger than I am, a man who has lived through a failed marriage, major financial and health difficulties, and a painful foray into studying for the ordained ministry for the Lutheran church that he loves. A combination of circumstances -- age, health and financial -- led to disappointment there, although he still occasionally gets invitations to serve as a lay preacher. Preaching, clearly, is what he likes best.

I am amazed at how many former Lutheran seminarians and now-Lutheran ministers I know. Of course, the Lutheran School of Theology was only two blocks from the monastery in Chicago, and I spent so much time in various churches around the University of Chicago -- Lutheran, American Baptist, United Church of Christ, interdenominational -- that I know lots of seminarians and divinity students from lots of groups.

Steve was one of the people who generously pitched in when Tom and I finished moving stuff up here, and he is the one person who made the four-hundred-mile round trip from and to Chicago to help us unload. He lives in Ohio now in order to be of support -- financial as well as personal -- to his sister and brother-in-law who face major challenges of their own. So that gives you an idea of the sort of guy he is. (He is also quite active working with the local DeMolay group, Daddy. For the Dodds who might not know, that's the Masonic group for young men.)

Anyway, Steve has been lonely and I think resigned to the idea that at this point in his life, lonely was the hand that was dealt him and lonely he would have to play it. As it turns out, God seems to have had other plans for him.

He found this video of a song from the musical Pippin, sung by Irene Ryan (you older folks at least will recognize her) that expresses some of how he feels today. I thought you might enjoy it.

In case your computer won't let you listen when you click on the arrow below, the lyrics to the full song (a bit different from Granny's version) can be found below.



When you are as old as I, my dear
And I hope that you never are
You will woefully wonder why, my dear
Through your cataracts and catarrh
You could squander away or sequester
A drop of a precious year
For when your best days are yester
The rest'er twice as dear....

What good is a field on a fine summer night
When you sit all alone with the weeds?
Or a succulent pear if with each juicy bite
You spit out your teeth with the seeds?
Before it's too late stop trying to wait
For fortune and fame you're secure of
For there's one thing to be sure of, mate:
There's nothing to be sure of!

Oh, it's time to start livin'
Time to take a little from this world we're given
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all....

I've never wondered if I was afraid
When there was a challenge to take
I never thought about how much I weighed
When there was still one piece of cake
Maybe it's meant the hours I've spent
Feeling broken and bent and unwell
But there's still no cure more heaven-sent
As the chance to raise some hell

Everybody....
[ALL]
Oh, it's time to start livin'
Time to take a little from this world we're given
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all....

Now when the drearies do attack
And a siege of "the sads" begins
I just throw these regal shoulders back
And lift these noble chins

Give me a man who is handsome and strong
Someone who's stalwart and steady
Give me a night that's romantic and long
And give me a month to get ready -
Now I could waylay some aging roue'
And persuade him to play in some cranny
But it's hard to believe I'm being led astray
By a man who calls me granny

[ALL]
Oh, it's time to start livin'
Time to take a little from this world we're given
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all....

Oh, it's time to start livin'
Time to take a little from this world we're given
Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall
In just no time at all....

Sages tweet that age is sweet
Good deeds and good work earns you laurels
But what could make you feel more obsolete
Than being noted for your morals?

Here is a secret I never have told
Maybe you'll understand why
I believe if I refuse to grow old
I can stay young till I die
Now, I've known the fears of sixty-six years
I've had troubles and tears by the score
But the only thing I'd trade them for
Is sixty-seven more....

Oh, it's time to keep livin'
Time to keep takin' from this world we're given
You are my time, so I'll throw off my shawl
And watching your flings be flung all over
Makes me feel young all over
In just no time at all....