The Older the Fiddle, the Sweeter the Tune

Daily writing prompt

What do you think gets better with age?

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An old Irish proverb, says:
The Older the Fiddle, the Sweeter the Tune

Well I don’t know. Maybe it depends of the fiddle. I’ve met many lovely older people throughout my life…and some not so lovely 😀.

When I was younger, if I held an opinion about politics or religion or whatever, I tended to see my opinion as 100% correct and anytime I had doubts, I would see them as some kind of a threat. Nowadays, I’m more open to other points of view. I do hold to a certain theological outlook. I suppose you could describe me as Christian, evangelical, and reformed in my theology. But I am less inclined to shun or ridicule other points of view. But I pretty much still hold to the positions I held to 40 years ago, except that I respect other points of view. And I appreciate the fact that when I get to heaven, I’ll probably be told that I was wrong about a great many things. I often think of the words of the Apostle Paul:

1 Cor 13:12
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Here are some songs that trigger thoughts about growing older:

• What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong: I knew this song as a young child. Louis Armstrong always brings me instant joy. Here, an older man reflects on the world and considers how wonderful it is. It reminds me of the hymn, How Great Thou Art.
  
  I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
  They’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know
  And I think to myself
  What a wonderful world
  
  I never had much interest in babies when I was young. I enjoyed them when we had children. Nowadays, I love babies, and I think I have the feeling that the writer of What a Wonderful World must have had. Some of them might well live into the 22nd Century, if the world lasts that long.
  
• Those Were the Days – Mary Hopkin: I think that this is the first pop song that I remember everyone in the street singing back in 1968, when I was six. It’s a lovely romantic song reflecting on the past. Similar songs include:
  • Louise by the Human league
  • Memory – Elaine Paige
  • Yesterday Once More – Carpenters
  • Our Last Summer – Abba
  • My Heart Will Go On – Celine Dion
    
• My Way – Frank Sinatra: Christians sometimes criticize this song. I should do it God’s way, not my way. But in another sense, you could think of it as standing up to social pressure and not allowing the world to squeeze you into its mould. My way is to follow Christ. See Matt 7:13 and Rom 12:2. Maybe a Christian equivalent would be Fight the Good Fight. See 2 Tim 4:7-8. Sinatra recorded a few spiritual songs too, such as:
  • The Lord’s Prayer
  • Jesus Is A Rock (In The Weary Land)
  • Let Us Break Bread Together
    
• Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell: I remember hearing this one in childhood too. It’s a reminder of how growing older helps you to widen your perspective.
  
• In My Life – The Beatles: This one means a lot more to me now than when I first heard it in autumn 1974, when I was 12. It was on the Beatles Red Album. He reflects on all his wonderful memories. John Lennon would have only been in his early 20s when he wrote it. I’ve always been a sentimental person, and as I grow older, I have more to remember. That’s another thing that gets better with age.
  
• Time – Pink Floyd: I began my progressive rock phase in 1976. This one is about how time slips away.
  
  Every year is getting shorter,
  Never seem to find the time,
  Plans that either come to nought ,
  Or half a page of scribbled lines.
  
  That’s so true, and it is truer for me now than it was 50 years ago 😀. So, as I get older, I realize how easily I can waste time and how precious time is.
  
• The Way We Were – Barbara Streisand: I wouldn’t have been into this sort of music back in 1973, but I remember reflecting on this song in Richmond, London in 1983 for whatever reason. Nowadays I think of the following lines:
  
  “Memories, may be beautiful and yet,
  What’s too painful to remember,
  We simply choose to forget.
  So it’s the laughter we will remember,
  Whenever we remember, the way we were.”
  
  The great thing about growing older is that you can look back on your life and you see it differently. At least I do. I tend to forget the stressy bits and look back with rose-tinted spectacles.
  
• These Are The Days of Our Lives: Queen: This was a hit in early 1992, just after Freddie Mercury died. It was written by drummer Roger Taylor. It’s all about reflecting on your younger years, which is something that’s a joy to do as you grow older. I like the following lines:
  
  You can’t turn back the clock, you can’t turn back the tide
  Ain’t that a shame
  Ooh, I’d like to go back one time on a roller coaster ride
  When life was just a game
  
  I would like to go back through my life, but it was never just a game. You just tend to forget whatever stressful mindset you were in. We sometimes say schooldays are the best days of your life, but I’m not sure if that would be music to the ears of school kids 😀. If I were given three wishes, one of them would be to have a little portal where I could go back to various points of my life and come and go as I please, without experiencing any of the stressful or negative feelings. I don’t expect to be granted that wish, but the second-best thing is to do it in my mind, which I often do.
  
• Life’s a Miracle – Prefab Sprout: I only discovered this 1997 song back in 2021, during the pandemic. It’s on the album Andromeda Heights. It’s all about making the most of every moment. And it gets easier to do that as you get older.

And then, you get hymns that touch on similar issues. My particular favourite is Abide with Me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

Most of these touch on themes such as thankfulness for help in the past and relying on God more for the future, as you gradually realize that life might turn out to be tougher than you thought. But I don’t think that this life is meant to be one big theme park, though it can sometimes be fun.

• “For All the Saints”
• “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
• “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”
• “It Is Well With My Soul”
• “Be Thou My Vision”
• “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me”
• “All the Way My Savior Leads Me”

I find that as the years go on, I feel less at home in this world and I’m more wanting to be at home with the Lord. Funnily enough, I almost think that began back around 2000. Maybe I think of myself as a 20th Century boy 😀. I think of the past as a wonderful world, but in comparison to the future, it’s not very wonderful at all. When Jesus sought to comfort his disciples on the night before he died, he didn’t tell them about the wonderful things in the past, or ahead in this world. I’m sure they had some good times, but almost all of them would suffer and die as martyrs. But he did say this:

John 4:2-3
My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.