Patina

While I was visiting colleagues in Israel, a friend took me to a banana plantation. The bananas had been harvested, and the trees had been cut down, and the stalks had been ground up and mixed with the dirt by heavy tractors pulling massive disc harrows.

Whenever the ground is deeply plowed like at this banana plantation, the big plows turn up some treasures. No, not gold or silver, but nevertheless treasures for people like me who just like to prospect.

Not only did we have fresh plowed up dirt to look through, but rain had fallen the day before we arrived at the banana plantation. The rain had washed the dirt away from the debris that had been plowed. Perfect conditions for prospecting for shards of pottery and pieces of patinaed Roman glass.

What makes these fragments of glass so special? Age. Just as copper and bronze turn greenish as they age, so does Roman glass get coated with iridescent hues of blue, green and even orange. This is the result of a corrosion process that slowly restructures the glass to form photonic crystals. These crystals are what give the material its iridescence.

You have also seen these crystals—or their effects—when you have seen the iridescent wings of a butterfly or a dragon fly, or when you have admired a lovely piece of opal.

Patinas can raise the value of an object because they are not only beautiful, but also a sign of age, thus proving that the object is an antique. One of the best examples of the sheer beauty patina can add to an object is the Statue of Liberty. It is a bronze statue, but over the years the bronze has been covered with a green patina that has enhanced this symbol of liberty.

Over the years I have collected some of those shards of glass. Are they worth anything? No, but they are worth a fortune in the pleasure I had in discovering these jewels.

Just as age adds value to ancient pieces of Roman glass, so it does to humans. Now that I am one of them—senior citizens—I can actually appreciate what life’s joys and struggles have taught me. I just wish that I had been smarter when I was in my teens and twenties to recognize how important it was to learn from my elders.

I was sitting in a metal bouncy chair daydreaming on the porch of my little “shop.” I was thinking about patina and age. Now I could use some patina on my old skin to toughen it up and cover up the age spots, but the thought came to me: wouldn’t it be awesome if everything that I have learned in my life could be put on a thumb drive. Then I could review it and remember things that I have forgotten long ago. I am sure that I have forgotten much more than I could recall today.

Family and friends often help me remember stuff that I have forgotten. “Dad, do you remember that time we …?” Friend: “Larry, I was thinking about when we trekked through the Sinai Desert…” Larry: “What are your best memories?” I ask questions like that to see if they remember something that I do not, and it helps me recall things that I thought I had lost. Now I am not yet afflicted with any disease related to memory loss, but I just have forgotten some great life experiences, and I would like to recall them and enjoy them again.

For most of my life I have heard analogies of a life span and the quarters of a football game. A popular movement was highlighted when the book “The Second Half” was released many years ago. I am in the fourth quarter now, but I actually feel that I am more in the time of the two-minute warning.

I don’t really need a warning whistle as I am aware that my age is about the lifespan of the average male in America. So, I want to make the most of every day and enjoy each day as if it was my last. “Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before.”