Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi with Ram Dass

My 'Ram Dass' moment

In his book, Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying, Ram Dass (formerly Richard Alpert) relates how offended he was when he was asked if his train fare would be at the 'Senior Citizen' rate. I always thought that story was significant because it showed how resistant we can be to our own aging -especially in a youth oriented culture.

Yesterday, I walked into town to do a bit of shopping. It was a lovely late autumn day and I had assured Maurene that she didn't need to make a list for me -after all, it was only four items. But, as I began shopping I could only remember the three items that I was purchasing at Marks and Spencer. The fourth item had disappeared somewhere in the less that rapidly firing synapses of my brain. I tentatively clutched the mobile phone thinking that I was going to have to ring Maurene to ascertain the identity of the fourth item. In a moment of grace, the fog lifted and I was able to remember. I raced off to the appropriate store, made my purchase, and headed for the bus stop (the walk back with a full bag of groceries wasn't all that inviting.)

I boarded the bus and informed the driver that I was heading for Chelsea Road. Without asking he began to punch in my destination on his console. I laid down my fare and he responded, 'Oh, I thought yours would be free.' In other words, I appeared to be a pensioner.

As the bus rattled through the narrow streets of Bath, I thought about my appearance. I also looked around the bus and saw how many pensioners had used the service to do their own shopping, or make a GP appointment, or simply move about the city. Thoughts of reduced carbon footprints, less congestion, and care for those on fixed incomes made free transport for pensioners seem a logical and compassionate way to improve the lives of everyone, not just those who had passed the age of 60.

In a time of global economic meltdown, can human civilization re-tool its infrastructures to meet the challenging demands that face us? Tony Benn, my favourite pensioner comments in the film, Sicko, how Great Britain retooled after the Second World War by not only rebuilding its devastated buildings and infrastructure, but by implementing the National Health Service. He saw the wisdom in moving from an economy that was geared on 'killing people' to an economy that was geared on 'healing people'. It seems that wisdom comes with aging -and that is a blessing for those of us who can't remember four items on a list and appear older than we believe ourselves to be.