I have a friend in Muenster who is 96 years old. Alvin Hartman has worked at the Muenster Enterprise since he graduated high school in 1948. He has done just about every job in the building at one point or another. He’s been a sportswriter, a composition man, a press man, the editor and even sold ads quite successfully back in the ‘70s.
He still clocks in a few hours a month to sweep the floor and run a few print jobs on an old Heidelberg press. He is the only person to ever run the Heidelberg. He took it out of the crate when his boss, Mr. Fette, bought it back in the early '50s. Alvin has kept it running smooth with the same tool kit the manufacturer provided with it back then. I once asked Alvin how much that press originally cost.
“Well, Mr. Fette said he could have bought a new Heidelberg or a new Cadilac. He opted for the Heidelberg,” Alvin said.
Alvin has been a constant in the Muenster community. He and his wife Joan raised a wonderful family there. The Hartman roots run deep in Western Cooke County. Joan passed away a year ago. The couple had been married 70 years.
“I miss her terribly,” Alvin told me last summer. “But I’m still here and I’ve got to keep moving.”
That’s Alvin’s philosophy on life— you must keep moving. And it seems to be working. At 96, he still has coffee with friends every morning, attends every parish activity on the calendar, remains a constant at Sacred Heart athletic events, stops by the newspaper to check print jobs and makes it out to the farm every day to attend to things there.
You can’t seem to keep him down. There have been health scares and broken bones. He just seems to bounce back. How does he do it? He keeps moving.
Newton’s First Law of Motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest and a body in motion will remain in motion. Such is Alvin Hartman. I remember a day five or six years ago when I was still working at the Enterprise. It was just Alvin and me at the office on a Friday morning. I was in the front office trudging through expense reports. Alvin was in the back print shop running a shop vac. Suddenly, I heard him cry out in what seemed to be great pain. I wasn’t sure what happened, or what I’d find when I walked back, there but I heard him through the thick concrete walls. I rushed to the back and found him still upright operating the shop vac.
“Are you alright?” I yelled loud enough to be heard over the motor.
“Oh, you heard that?” he asked after turning off the machine.
“Yes, I heard that. Are you okay?” I asked again.
“Yeah, I’m okay. I’ve just been to physical therapy over at the hospital and they worked me out really good. I’m sore and I twisted the wrong way and it stung,” he said.
“Do I need to take you to the doctor?”
“No,” he said. “If I go to the doctor, he’ll tell me to go home and lie down.”
“Do I need to take you home to lie down?”
“No. If I go home and lie down, I’ll lie down and die,” he said. “I’m not going to lie down.”
And, with that, he turned the shop vac back on and went back to work. I did too.
His sentiment stuck with me. How does one remain active well into their 90’s? They make the choice to remain active. That’s what Alvin has done.
Science tells us that staying active can help lower the risk of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer. The physical benefits are undeniable, but there are spiritual benefits are as well.
1 Timothy 4:8 says, “Training your body is of some value, yes, but don’t sacrifice it at the expense of your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. May your movement flow from the fruit of the Spirit, which will last forever.”
Alvin is just as active in the spiritual life as he is in his physical life. He understands the two run in tandem and we could all take a lesson. I encourage you to get up. Stay active. Don’t lie down. Be tired at the end of the day. Activity is contagious. Be the example.
Be like Alvin.
Source: Stock image