Old has value sometimes??

At church last week I had a woman tell me she was the same age as me. I said I doubt that, I'm 60. I thought she was going to have a heart attack. "I'm not that old" she exclaimed. I'm glad she thought I was about 50 years old, but lets be serious, I have a mirror. I have seen the ravages of time.

I am a firm believer in accepting the age you are. I don't want to be one of those people who are trying to stay young forever. There are some advantages to being, well we'll call it mature. I'm not quite ready to say I am old yet. 

But old things have value, and that includes old people. There is some wisdom that can only be gained by experience and, yes, age. The trim on that doorway is well over 100 years old.

 

I have been taking old boards that were removed from the house by the previous owner and resurfacing them. I cut about 1/8 of an inch off the surfaces to get down to unpainted wood.

It takes more time than just cutting a new trim board and it only saves about $24 per door frame. On 9 door frames that would only amount to $216 on this project. Even though $216 is not pocket change, it isn't much on a $25,000 budget and I am throwing in a few extra hours labor as well.

It is the same with the floors. I am going to clean them up and reseal them. It would be just as fast to lay a new floor over the old one, but I get a lot of satisfaction from making something old look good again.

There are times when the old can not be reused and the kitchen floor was certainly one of those floors.

Old linoleum with holes worn through it. Definitely needed to be covered over with something new.

Traditions can be that way. They can have wonderful value or they can be well past usefulness. It takes some wisdom to figure out which is which. When is it time to move on to something new and when is it time to just polish up the old?  

I hope I can be able to listen to the ideas of the youth of today without immediately saying "that's not how it has been done in the past." I hope the younger people can listen to me and not immediately say, "that old guy's ideas are way past usefulness." There is a time for old and a time for new, may God give us the wisdom to figure out which is which.