Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

• Matthew 6:34

Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

• Luke 12:22-26

The New Boilerplate

My wife filled a small book with “Angel” on the cover.  It was hidden with a box of crafting things.  On 18 July 2025, I thought I had posted the last of these.  But this little angel book held a prayer, followed by 71 quotes.  So, the “with a little help” series is back in business for a while.  And it will be fun for me.  She did not attribute any of the quotes.  The first quote was from James A. Garfield, the 20^th president of the USA.  The next one was disputed, with some thinking it originated with Teddy Roosevelt and others saying Fred Astaire.  After the prayer, these might be on the lighter side.

Her quote

“I don’t worry about getting old. I’m old already. Only young people worry about getting old.”

• George Burns

The Discussion

I typed the quotation into Google search.  I had done this with all the previous searches, and then sifting through different articles, I got at what I thought was the correct answer.  This time, I got no suggestion that it was ever a quote.  I got a statement from Google AI that my statement was in error.

Then, they went on to some erroneous pop psychology concept to explain the quote.  If Artificial Intelligence could be offended, this was what it might sound like.  When you are young, you worry about the unknown.  When you are old, you don’t care one way or the other.

The psychological garbage in that last statement is beyond ridiculous.  Young people who have accepted Jesus into their lives take Jesus at His word, and there is no reason to worry.  And I have talked with old people who do not have Jesus in their lives.  They sleep with the lights on in the room because they see this sinister spirit at the foot of their bed when they turn the lights out.  They are deathly afraid of not getting any older.

I finally got the answer when I added to my search that what I had typed was a quote. I immediately got George Burns. And no, I did not say, “This is a quote, Bozo!” I was polite, while AI was not.

But I have discussed in social groups and written a little about how AI has no sense of humor, but in this case, they completely lose the concept of logic.  If a person is old, they cannot by definition worry about getting old.  They are already old.  The “getting old” is past tense.  They got old and they are living proof that “getting old” does not kill you.  If you then surmise that you are either young or old, with no middle ground.  Then the only group of people who have the capacity to worry about getting old are young people.

With the narrowed definition that there is only young people and old people, the joke simply becomes a fact using Logical arguments.  I know, the old Mark Twain comment about dissecting a joke, it’s like dissecting a frog, at some point you have to kill it.

But without Jesus in your heart, the older you get, the more paralyzing the worry about getting old, rather the worry about death becomes more paralyzing.

Without God, we have good reason to worry.  With God, there is no reason to worry at all.

But this is not the end of the George Burns quote.  He joked about not believing in dying.  In fact, he could not die.  He was booked.

George Burns was booked for a huge 100^th birthday party in Las Vegas, NV.  He attended other parties during the Christmas/New Years holidays and developed a case of the flu.  His “death defying” booking had to be cancelled due to not recovering from the flu.  He died two months after that cancellation at his home of heart failure.  Was George Burns like many people who mock God and pay the price?  Or was he mocking death?  And in the end, would he have to admit that he worried about getting old?

Do not worry about it.  Accept Jesus and have the assurance of life with Him forever.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory