"Your old men shall dream dreams..."

A post card thank you note from the
Sander's campaign for my donation.

Acts 2:17 KJV:  “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams…”

In spite of the fact that Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton (Trust me I get it, I absolutely understand it), I can think of no other candidate, or for that matter any political figure, who has inspired me more than he.  I will explain why, but let me digress a little first.  

I turned 60 in May and I am becoming aware that I am getting old.  It's not just that the number 60 is, or can be, a psychologically traumatic moment, but rather it is all those little signs that go with this time of life like a sore back, or a where-did-I-put-my-keys moments and other things, like visiting doctors who point out all the age-related conditions I have, and who regularly dismiss me and my complaints by saying, “you’re getting older.”   

I mean people my age are trying to figure out how retirement works and what they will do with their lives when that time comes, but it often seems to involve a life of playing golf and traveling the states in RVs, or playing euchre on Thursday night, with Bingo on Saturday,  and asking why the kids don’t call often enough and so forth.  Basically they're done.  That's kind of the problem.

Sanders, however, doesn’t seem to even think about retirement, slowing down, or taking his ease.  He turned 75 during the primaries and yet his energy and passion are like those of a younger man.   Sanders dreams dreams--big dreams—dreams that will long out last him and affect our country for years to come.  He stands in contrast to my own notion of what is to grow old in America. I find that old people generally don’t dream dreams anymore in our culture—as if their days of dreaming are done, and that, if they haven’t achieved their dreams by now, it’s too late. Old people seem to think, "well it’s time that the next generation takes it from here, I’m not going to be around much longer and as for me, I just want to take my ease and enjoy what life I have left in peace."  But I know, this is wrong.  One must always work, fight, and struggle to the finish or lose everything in the end. That is the moral of the parabolic play of King Lear, or the movie about the warlord Ran—one should never give up the fight—ever, you must be king to the end. In the words of Dylan Thomas:

“Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rage at close of day

Rage, RAGE against the dying of the light”

I cannot think of anyone who has taken those words more to heart than Bernie Sanders.  Some readers may not like his political positions, but I cannot see how they can ignore his passion, and drive, his clear-cut, consistent positions over time.  Even his rivals have shown respect for his integrity and straightforward stance on political issues, which have remained pretty much the same for decades.

In reflecting on the passage from Acts 2:17 quoted above, I have thought that the pouring out of the Spirit (I’m using this in a metaphorical sense) represents something that comes on like a sudden and unexpected wind to a ship that has been stuck in doldrums for generations--that would be our political system here.  In my mind, in this country, in these times, prophet has been among us and has called up the wind, the pneuma, and things have begun moving. What is surprising to me about this passage from Acts isn’t so much that the sons and daughters, (or our millennials) prophesy or that those young men and women see visions—young people are always idealistic and always have dreams and visions--but again I say what is surprising to me in this passages is the fact that the old men dream dreams long after the days of dreaming are done.  If Sanders can dream dreams at his age, it inspires me, it makes me want to fight hard against the dying of the light and to dream dreams too, right down to my very last breath as I grow old.