106 years young!

Monday 9th November, 2020.

I was reminded by my brother yesterday that our Aunt, my late Mother's eldest Sister, was 106 today. I have tried to telephone her but it seems she is very busy. Her mind, I am told, is still clear and she will know who I am. She recalls the past more effectively than the near present but has a powerful intellect. Her body needs others to help it get about but she still demands to be as independent as ever. She is an Anglican Nun. In her day she was the Head of a world wide Order. I used to marvel as she travelled the world and inspired and taught many thousands of nuns doing good works across the globe and being people of prayer and faith. Like many Orders it seems that vocations in the first world have dwindled but in the third have risen to impressive numbers.

Cynics snidely comment that the third world is gullible and in need of finances and education and a religious vocation can provide both. The other side of that coin is that the first world is arrogant and self satisfied and had clouded its spirituality with copious idols and consumerism and the naive belief that it knows best.

The first world seems to be raping the third of raw materials, of humanity itself as it exploits it by selling arms and demanding vast repayments of monies lent at extortionate rates. The third world feels the sympathy for our hearts of stone, our loss of family and our lack of awareness of our environmental interconnectedness with nature.

All this is a generalisation: what is not is that my Aunt is 106. I was taught that long life was seen as God's blessing in the Old Testament. To me it can be a curse if one is hampered by ill health or has no faith or hope but rather merely existence. I am just full of admiration and, I hope, love for a remarkable woman who set a powerful example of the intermingling of faith and urbanity. I have many heroes and heroines and they are my inspiration. There is an old saying much used in our family when telling another, politely, that they are bossy and controlling even if with good intent. " You could easily be a Mother Superior ". My 106 year old Aunt used to reply "I am a Mother Superior!"