Football legend, broadcaster, and video game pitchman John Madden died last week. He was 85. He died “unexpectedly.” Oddly, it was just a couple of days after a massive tribute to his life was shown on Fox Sports. And the 62nd wedding anniversary of the Maddens.
This man seemed to relish life. And people loved his down home sense of humanity. I had my grudges. His Raiders beat my Vikings in one of their four Super Bowl losses. It’s been forgiven.
John seemed to repeatedly say he had a very good life. He got to do what he wanted to do all the way through: teach. And he was good at it.
I can’t say I know a ton of people who can reflect on their earthly term with such enthusiasm. I’m not sure I can find the masses who even believe 2021 was a very good year. Yet, of course, it was in many ways. Perspective, I suppose.
My playlist last Friday morning, as I rode my exercise bike on New Year’s Eve, included a couple of leftover Christmastime songs that really deal more with snow and such. I have an affection for an old Bing Crosby tune titled "Wonderful White World of Winter." I played that one and chuckled over the lyric about bumping “your little noggin” on the toboggan. Don’t hear that king of thing anymore!
Then I mused over Karen Carpenter’s "What are You Doing New Year’s Eve?" And the classic "Same Auld Lang Syne" along with a Mannheim Steamroller version of the real song. I ended my morning ride with a bit of a twist—"It was a Very Good Year" sung by the master crooner himself, Frank Sinatra.
Weird about that song. I remember hearing it early on in life. It was recorded in 1965. I was 14. And I would note as he sang about aging that I had not even hit the first benchmark—17! Then the final verse begins, “But now my days are short. I’m in the autumn of my years…” Haunting to hear that now. I feel I’ve arrived. Last birthday was #70. Is that “old”? Depends on who you ask.
How old is old? My wife and I go round and round on that. Her maternal grandparents reached 100. Mine lived into their 70s as did my mother. My father died at 55.
Don’t ask Methuselah! The biblical legend lived to age 960. People lived MUCH older back then. Frequently 700-900 years. (I think your 900th birthday usually included a small of group of friends who talked about health issues and memory problems. Has nothing changed?)
Today, if you’re pushing 100 before you’re pushing up daisies you’ve had a LONG life. I can’t imagine my trek lasting that long. Nor do I want it to. I’m already falling apart.
Sergei Scherbov and Warren Sanderson are demographers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. In their recent book, Prospective Longevity: A New Vision of Population Again, they posit that chronological age only reveals how long we’ve lived so far. To determine whether you’ve earned the distinction of “old,” it’s better to consider how many years of life expectancy one has remaining. The demographers call this your “prospective age.”
Their view is that a person should be considered “old” when their life expectancy is 15 years or less. I would put myself in that category. I am unofficially, then, a fossil.
Psalm 90 was a prayer written by Moses. He said, “Seventy years are given to us! Some even live to eighty. But even the best years are filled with pain and trouble; soon they disappear, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10 (NLT) It seems King David lived to about 70 years old.
But the real rubber-meets-the-road of John Madden’s famous bus not with the quality of this life, but the next. I know John’s long-time broadcast partner, Pat Summerall, came to trust in Jesus for eternity. I don’t know about John.
He grew up attending Catholic school. And according to one source, “John Madden…has always had Christian ideas and faith.” I hope that’s true, so that the joy he felt in this life will continue into the next.
For the record, John Madden was born in Austin, Minnesota. I wonder if deep down he was a Viking at heart? Hmmmm.
That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.
You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?
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