WHAT IS THE TRUE MEASURE OF AGE?
St. Augustine Florida, just south of Jacksonville, a Wife and Mother looks out at the world, as if it were her very first time. But she is 56 years of age. She spent most of her life in Church and under the constant watch of her pastoring Father and very religious Christian family. She was courting by 17, in love with a young and up coming Pastor in training, one that her Father approved of. By age 21 she was married.
She never actual graduated from High School, her family saw her task as a Pastor's Wife as more important. She had been sheltered her whole life by the doctrines of the Church and the belief systems of her family. Her Husband, now a Pastor at the age of 23, rose up to carry on her Father's ministry, but then later started his own Church with the family's blessings.
Almost 35 years and four children later, she was now divorced. The desires for Church life died as financial woes plagued the family. Her ex. Husband at the tender age of 58, denounced his God, Wife and Family. He is now married to the streets, booze and loose Women. All the children are grown now, off on their own- living their own lives far away from the Jesusloving ways of their Parents. They take with them the love lessons and morals, leaving behind the hypocrisies.
For many years this Wife and Mother was sheltered by her beliefs, by her Church, her Bible, her family and her Husband. Now all of these things were gone. She is now "exposed" to the outside world. Forced to react to a different social construct. Now she begins to age.
If you yourself met her in the street, you would say this Woman was at least 35 years of age. Speaking to her over the phone, you would say this Woman is at least 25 or younger.
Ghana, West Africa. A Wife and Mother looks out at the world, unafraid- trailing the movement of the Sun with her eyes. The rain will come very soon, and she may have to call her children inside. All 8 of them. She works with most of the Women in her family but listens out for the sound of her Husband's voice.
She was married as a Teenager, at 14. A practice frowned upon by many of us in the West. She worked hard with her family and her schooling and always knew she would carry on their cocoa farming traditions.
Now 36 she has been married to the same Man for over 20 years. A bond held together not by responsibility and survival alone, but by the ill forgotten religion of community. There is nothing here to shelter her from the real world. Yes there is belief, but those beliefs are tied to real things that bring death or life.
We are speaking about Women who have different levels of exposure. If you met her in the street and spoke to her, you would find her to be much older than 36. Speaking with her on the phone she would seem like a great Elder.
What is the true measure of age? I would say the rate of exposure to a social reality.
The brain and body may not age at the same pace at all. We are aged both artificially as well as naturally. Scientists have been able to age cheap wine artificially by exposing it to electrical fields. Fooling the taste buds of wine experts.
Age is indeed nothing but a number.
Someone that lives their life sheltered away from natural reality would seem almost younger than someone who is constantly at war with it. This is why those of us from native Africa, and even from so-called "3rd world" countries seem much more mature. America is sheltered, the truth is filtered out through the media. It's possible to keep someone in a bomb shelter convinced that the world has ended. If that person is unable to venture outside and see for themselves.
African babies hit the ground running. Potty training at 5-6 months of age and competing with their environments no later than that. Their ability to learn is assisted by the nurturing of the Sun, beaming down on them constantly as survival of the fittest is law learned while tied to a Mother's back. To our credit, we are exposed just as well- aged by exposure, but an artificial type we call ghetto life. It can be as harsh and cruel as any 3rd world nation, but it is set up like a controlled experiment- another reason they call it "the projects."
What America has designed for us, could easily be labeled "social entrapment" it is a means of aging us artificially, exposing us to energy that shortens the life span. It amazed me when I first found out that raisins were grapes dried up in the Sun. Just as it amazed me when I found out we are the same great Africans of yesterday's wonders. Are we, those of us who are Africans in America- also like raisins due to our consistent exposure, or lack thereof. Raisins in the sun?
Could we expect to regain the power of our Ancestors by sheltering ourselves inside American life? Or could this be done only by recreating the actions of our Ancestors to the best of our ability? Changing our social realities? Is this social reality in particular of our own design?
The social reality of the Wife and Mother in Florida is different from the social reality of the Wife and Mother in Ghana, one is more about sheltering, the other more about exposure at an earlier age. How old are we really?