Changes - part 1

I have always been a big fan of the Indiana Jones films. So, when a fourth film was released I made sure to go and see it during its first weekend at the theater. My first thought when they finally showed a close-up of Harrison Ford was "Wow, he looks old." I am not sure what I expected to see. It had been almost twenty years (that's two decades for those of you playing at home) since the third film was released. Surely, even in the age of computer imaging and touch-ups a man in his mid-sixties is going to look like a man in his mid-sixties.
Why did Harrison's Ford age and appearance matter? Well, for starters, our culture glorifies and worships youth. In some parts of the world you are not taken seriously until you have a few gray hairs and wrinkles on your face. Not so in the good ol' US of A. We value things that are new, fresh, unblemished even if that means untested and inexperienced. To see a sixty year old man up on the silver screen trying to play an action hero just seemed wrong. The key word here is seemed. There are no laws that say you can only save the world if you are under fifty. But our culture sure acts like it is a crime.
Another reason an aging Harrison Ford bothered me was because by getting older he had messed up our relationship. Indiana Jones and I started hanging out in 1981. My girlfriend at the time won tickets to the opening night premier of the movie. The theater was packed, the movie fantastic and I developed a serious love for that character (The girl? She and I broke up a few months later). I have all but memorized the lines to each of the first three films. Indiana Jones was always supposed to look like a handsome, rugged man in his thirties. Now he looked different, even sounded different. I want my original Indy back, the one I always wanted to be like (who did not qualify for an AARP card).
I have been thinking a lot about how relationships change. The person I married 17 years ago is not the one I woke up with this morning. My children are in a constant state of change and it seems I have to reinvent my relationship with them on a daily basis. All around me, everywhere I look in my life, relationships are changing. The question I am wrestling with is what to do about it. And is there any guidance that my faith can provide me as I attempt to be in a thousand every changing relationships? That is what I will be writing about over the next few days. Feel free to add your comments throughout the week.