By the time I was twenty six I had already begun to feel some of the uncanny influences that come with society. I remember one day in particular being bugged down in the car park of a twenty floor storey building struggling to change a punctured tire on my car. The job seemed to take longer than normal because I couldn’t get the feeling of frustration and anger out of my head at a discussion I had the night before with my father. I had phoned him to enquire about his health and after getting through the basics I found myself being interrogated and pressured into making marital commitments. His questions came as if they had been rehearsed and I listened in frustration as he offered me all the positive reasons in the world for marrying young. What I found puzzling was that he asked about my plans for marriage without even asking me if I had a girlfriend. I had not seen my father in almost four years and he barely knew who I was. I had left home at the age of eighteen and as far back as I could remember he knew very little of whom I was then and I wondered how he could be making suggestions in my life when we hadn’t seen each other for so long. Naturally it is every parent’s duty to advice their kids on what is best for their future given their own experiences but what truly irritated me was the fact that he could  advice me on something so personal  without any knowledge of the circumstances I was facing in my life. I felt that he had taken so much for granted and as if to equate status with age he was now making it clear that it was time for me to bear this burden as it only seemed fit that I was ready for it.

    As I tightened the knots of the new wheel I felt the spanner cut through my flesh and I listened to the rapid pounding of my heart as it raced with anger at my father’s suggestion. He had no knowledge of the debt that I was in or the problems that I was facing with my girlfriend yet since marriage was foremost in his mind it became the primary topic of our conversation. On reflection the whole situation seems silly but there is no doubt in my mind that these are some of the pressures we all face in life that lead us into the arms of the devil. Thinking of some of the possible outcomes now sends the jitters up my spine! I can imagine today what would have happened if I had fallen victim of his wishes. I am sure that the first thing I would have done is to apply pressure on my girlfriend to marry me. Having done this with a positive outcome for the wrong reasons giving her state of mind I would then start thinking of increasing my loans to accommodate all unpredictable expenditures.  If I succeed in this then I set myself in good stead for my next sunken state of oblivion. I have no doubt in my mind that no sooner had he got over the excitement of a wedding than his next objective would be grand children. This would be good for his moral but then how would I support this family? In the end just by trying to meet the demands of society I would be in a situation where I had a life ruled by man and his needs in society.

    The fact remains that at all ages in life we all go through one experience or another that is bounded by the values of man’s demands on age. For some of us it is our looks. In a way they become a problem especially for those of us in the entertainment business as they are our core values and promote our status in society. However as age would have its way we soon lose this confidence and have to resort to plastic surgery to retain our youthful looks. Even with this temporal lifeline available to us we eventually cannot hide the decrepit nature of our bodies and soon we loose the panache of our character and are overlooked for younger actors. Again the skullduggery of the devil has had its wicked way with us and we have become its victims. For some of us there is the sloppiness that comes with age to compensate for. We loose our ability to exercise as frequently as we had been accustomed to in high school, grow love handles eventually suffering the wrath of extra pounds. With this pressure hanging over our heads we go through different cycles of uncertainty in our looks and mannerisms seeking diabolical means to restore our confidence. However society is not partial as it seeks its victims from all age groups. When one flips the coin over there are pressures imposed on the younger man to get a prominent position in society even though the goals that are set before him are often unachievable. Society assumes that he who is of age has more wisdom, more experience and is more likely to influence his peers in the business. The young man is then left with the burden of gaining experience to acquire respect and position. In the end our analysis brings us to the conclusion that we are facing a no win situation. On one hand it is good to be young because of our strength and our ability to venture into the most daring of stunts yet on the other hand if we were old society would be willing to give us more money, less car insurance and a better reception.

    The downfall of man is man’s own demands of man. We demand so much from each other at all levels that in the end we miss the beauty of just being who we are. In the spiritual world age is just another number. This may sound like a cliché from an old song but the fact remains that there is no time limit for a promise from God to manifests itself so the spiritual man cannot be committed to the path of age. In the spirit our lives are lived according to God’s wishes and not ours so it is by his will that we receive all things in life. In the spiritual world there is no wasted life, no lost time or years lacking in adventure or entertainment as seen by man as he is always aware that all that is his has been granted to him by the wisdom of God. As no one can predict the outcome of any situation or event, the spiritual man makes no demands on anyone of what they should have achieved or accomplished by a certain age. For those of us who have the opportunity to have things and to be prosperous in life then we are given in abundance according to what has already been decided by the Lord. For others it is different and what we have is all that we can get out of this world based on fate. The feeling of loss due to age should never pose a burden to our lives just because society wishes that we should aspire to its needs.

    In the spiritual world age has no meaning and is timeless. If we cannot tell the age of the Lord then how can we tell the age of man? Man was created by God and so all the answers lie with God. If man is truly spiritual and the flesh is a temporal covering layer then why do we persist with this inquisition of satisfying the needs of the flesh?