THE MAN IN THE MIRROR
Nowadays I am always somewhat surprised when I look at that old man in the mirror looking back at me. The features are familiar. I have watched his hair thin out and turn to gray over the years. I remember him loooking back at me when I first started to shave. He was fifteen or so then at Mount Hermon School in the Connecticut River valley of Massachusetts. He looked back at me in his Navy Ensign’s uniform in World War II. I’ve watched him age, but I never seemed to feel the same corresponding change in me. In so many ways, I am the same me of that little boy of five, or that shiny new Ensign aboard my first ship in a convoy to Europe, or as a young Assistant Professor of Physics at Hamilton College, or as a Branch Manager of the IBM office in Dayton, Ohio. I am still the me that is curious about everything, fascinated by the stories of history, and in awe of the complexity and wonder of life itself.
I recognize that the old man in the mirror has been all those things too, but I always think that I am standing up straighter, striding out with my head up, standing at military attention at the playing of the National Anthem – until I see him in the reflection of a store window. So although we are good friends and know each other pretty well, there is still a disconnect.
So when you see him on the street walking with a cane, please recognize that there is really a different person inside, a person who is very much alive and interested in all the people around him, and who is grateful to be a part of this amazing thing called life with its gift of love. I accept each day to be enjoyed, but also to be used. I am still struggling to be a better human being each day.
So I salute you my friend in the mirror, as he salutes me back. .
Loren Bullock
September 24, 2013
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M Loren Bullock 
I love what you have written about aging. I am in my 66-67 year and I too look in the mirror and see a different person from who I was 20, 30 or 40 years ago. But it is only in looks. I am still the same curious person I was way back then with one exception.
Back then I was afraid to ask questions about Jesus, God or anything about my faith. Raised Catholic we were not allowed that privilege for fear of the literal rod and subsequent abandonment of friends and family. Now some of those same abandonment fears are there but they do not matter as much as me getting answers to questions too long on my mind.
I found your blog when I was at the Progressive Network website. I have been reading Spong off and on for about two years. Recently I picked up his book, Jesus for the Non-Religious. I am loving it. But as I approach the end of it, I want to talk about what I have read but can find no one that is of the same mindset as myself. With a little searching I found out that you live here in Gaithersburg as do I. I hope to be able to correspond with you if that is possible.
Again, thank you for your blog and the particular piece on aging.