It's more like inspirational.
It's inspiring to watch people persevere.
But to act like there is no sadness in watching others lose vigor and capability when they age seems odd to me.
Most political convention speeches won't inspire me much. I am mostly looking for a quick bottom line, and this kind of stuff is mostly fluff.
I did end up watching the whole video though, and I knew right from the beginning exactly why I would.
My father was 82 and grey and not anywhere near as quick or as imposing as he was in his prime. He tended to ramble a bit too, and in spite of all the pain he was going through, his sense of humor still came through, just like as Clint's did in that speech. The humor may have been a little off, a little bizarre rather than quick witted like the tongue of young stand up comic.
The thing is, this is what it is like to grow old. But with people who grow old that we know, like a father or a famous actor, theirs is dignity too. For we already see the whole import of their lives when we look at them. We see all that they have accomplished, all that they have gone through, and the natural demise of a good life too, a life well lived.
There is sadness to be sure in the loss of strength, but it is nothing compared to the awe that an old person can inspire in us.
For some people all that they saw was a doddering old man, a skid row drunk even.
I guess I just didn't see that at all.
I saw an old man for sure, but a man that carried himself around with the quiet pride of someone who has accomplished much, and who still has a twinkle in his eye in spite of his body and his mind not keeping up with the vitality of that spirit that shines through, that just keeps on growing stronger and stronger with age.
Like there isn't enough of that on skid row
