My good friend Diane has just passed her PhD so big congratulations are in order.
She was exploring a new way of looking at ageing and older people in our churches and the central thread is that 'old is beautiful'. Challenging the myth of the body perfect and the quest for perpetual youth, she has become a champion for the older people in her church, and more widely for older people in all churches. I wouldn't claim to understand half of what she's written, it's far too clever for me, but I am thrilled that she has passed and that her unique and precious contribution to Baptist (and wider Christian) life is recognised.
My post title echoes the Adrian Snell work of 1993 which explored issues around a child born with disability, a work which I recall as being quite significant in making me think through how we define beauty and worth, success and fulfilment. Since then I have beocme aware of theologies of, and emerging from, disability.
My own experiences over the last few months have embodied questions and explorations of beauty, of worth, of meaning - something none of us ever thinks will happen to us. Apart from discovering I actually looked good with no hair (not that I intend to repeat the experiment!) I learned first hand what it was to be stared at or avoided because I looked 'different'. I have learned to love my scars, to embrace the brokenness and to understand more fully that beauty has little to do with physical perfection and everything to do with inner perception. I think I am a little more appreciative of what I am able to do, a little more gentle in my expectations of myself, and far more conscious of the finitude and frailty of human life. The flip side is I am less tolerant of trivia made large, grudge-bearing and feuding. Life is beautiful and precious, not to be wasted in bitterness and ugly attitudes or actions.
I am contemplating calling myself Robyn for the next few weeks due to the effect the radiation is already having on part of my anatomy, but even in that thought is, I guess, a humour that accepts and embraces the changes that are occuring.
Learning to love ourselves, as we are, in our imperfections, that's part of what Diane is about in her ministry, and I rejoice that she is a Revd Dr.
Comments
Well done Diane - pl;ease pass on my congratulations to her.
Wht a wonderfuilly encouraging post for an almost-65-year-old two-times cancer sufferer to read, Catriona! To be honest, if you take away the older members of most churches, there'd be precious few people left in the pews, but we do seem to be invisble much of the time.
On the subject of reddening skin, I found Acqueous Cream invaluable. You can get it in big tubs at Boots and use it lavishly. It's cooling and non-irritating and helps to stop the feeling of getting sun-burned.
J - will do, though she passes this way occasionally and may spot you wishes anyway.
P - in previous church I was the youngest (and still would be if I was there)... take away the older people and that church wouldn't exist. Thanks for the tip, my hospital say they supply aqueous cream if the burning gets bad - so far it's just a bit of heat and slight reddening (what they call in the trade erythema; I know this I wrote introductory training manuals for the RN on biological effects of radiation a very long time ago!) Might get some cream from Boots anyway to add to my apothecary-shop bathroom.