T42D: Captain Tom
Rodders finds purpose in ageing. And how!
Ed.
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Once in a while there is a good news story and on Friday 17 July Captain [now honorary Colonel] Tom Moore was knighted by the Queen at Windsor Castle.
Sir Thomas Moore, born 30 April 1920, popularly known as “Captain Tom”, is a former British Army officer and centenarian, known for his achievements raising money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On 6 April 2020, at the age of 99, he began to walk laps of his garden in aid of NHS Charities Together, with the goal of raising £1,000 by his hundredth birthday. In the 24-day course of his fundraising he made many media appearances and became a popular household name in the UK, generating much interest in his life story, earning a number of accolades and attracting over 1.5 million individual donations. He featured in a cover version of the song “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, with proceeds going to the same charity. The single topped the UK music charts and made him the oldest person to achieve a UK number one.
By the end of the day on his hundredth birthday, the total raised by his walk passed £30 million, and by the time the campaign closed had increased to over £32.79 million.
His birthday was marked in a number of ways, including flypasts by the Royal Air Force and the British Army. He received over 150,000 cards, and was appointed an honorary colonel of the Army Foundation College. His knighthood was announced on 19 May.
History is littered with examples of people who didn’t give up because they were old and had a positive attitude. Col. Sanders was well over 60 when he made it big with Kentucky Fried Chicken. Before that he simply sold chicken and other food at a service station in Corbin, Kentucky. He walked the long miles pitching his unique recipe and was even knocked back 1,009 times before someone decided to give him a chance to birth what is now known today as the highly successful food chain KFC.
Chaucer wrote his ‘Canterbury Tales’ between the age of 54 and 61. At 62 Louis Pasteur in 1885 gave the first injection against rabies and at 64 Winston Churchill became prime minister in 1940.
Peter Roget invented The Thesaurus at age of 73. He used what most people would see as a character flaw to his success. Suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder [OCD], the only thing that would calm him down was making random lists. In the end he simply started on the infinite project of creating a list of synonymous words.
At 80 Grandma Moses, in 1940, staged her first solo show. She only started serious painting in her 70’s. Socrates learned to play on musical instruments at age 80. At age 82 on 20 August 1994, Fred Lasby, completed a solo round the world flight in his single engine Piper Commanche. And finally, in March 1971, Alice Pollock of Haslemere, published her first book, ‘Portrait of my Victorian youth’, aged 102.
I was intrigued by an article in the Independent on 27 February 2020 entitled ‘Step away from the face cream — and embrace ageing’. Apparently, Guy Robertson has written a book entitled, ‘The ten steps of positive ageing’. The article details how Guy Robertson says you seldom hear anyone talk with a positive sense around getting older. He says that an intended compliment like ‘You look good for your age’ stems from the idea that “getting older is something to be resisted at all costs”. From a study testing people’s attitudes to getting older, they found that people who had negative attitudes towards their own ageing died seven-and-a-half years earlier than people who had more positive attitudes.
Often being positive comes with having a good sense of humour. I came across these amusing quotes and stories about old age.
Bob Hope said, “You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake!”
Here is a story from Tommy Cooper. A woman tells her doctor, ‘I’ve got a bad back’. The doctor says, ‘It’s old age’. The woman says, ‘I want a second opinion’. The doctor says, ‘Ok — you’re ugly as well’.
I decided to stop calling the bathroom “John” and renamed it the “Jim”. I feel so much better saying ‘I went to the “Jim” today!
Several elderly church members were being asked to what they attributed their longevity. “And why do you think God has permitted you to reach the age of 92?”, one wealthy old lady was asked. Without hesitation she responded: “To test the patience of my relatives!”
Just because we are in the autumn or maybe winter of our lives shouldn’t mean that we are put out to grass as it were.
Churchill said, “We are happier in many ways when we are old than when we were young. The young sow wild oats. The old grow sage”.
In fact Arthur Morgan wrote, “Preparation for old age should begin no later than one’s teens. A life which is empty of purpose until 65 will not suddenly become filled on retirement”.
Captain Tom demonstrates that you are never too old to achieve your goal.
So the Thought for Today is can you say (like the apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Philippi), ‘But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus’.
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Rodders
