Editor's View: Respect Your Elders

This morning on my way to work I met an older man driving slowly. I got a glimpse of his face and it was familiar, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen him. Like he was someone I used to see often, maybe a former business owner?

The man behind him was visibly frustrated by the pace, obviously in a hurry to get wherever he was headed. I’m usually guilty of that sentiment as well, but today I observed what it looks like from the outside.

And it hit me, that’s how we – more often than not – treat older people in our society.

We complain that they are taking too long or assume they are dumb if they don’t understand a new concept as quickly as younger folks.

We assume ignorance and don’t exercise patience to teach and assist.

The irony is – almost everything we know had to be taught to us by someone else with patience.

Our parents literally wiped our butts until we were potty trained. Now, that’s real love.

Our way of life has changed so much just in my 40 years on earth.

I jokingly say, “Please be patient with me, I’m from the 1900s.”

That statement is slowly becoming less of a joke and more of a warning to younger generations who attempt to explain new concepts to me.

The cliche is that if older people want help with their electronics, they should ask the grandkids.

Well, that street goes both ways.

All the knowledge of the world was once held in the minds of the now-older generations. Before the internet and AI – the way a person knew things was a lot more tedious. You had to go to a library or ask someone who knew. We relied on each other a lot more then.

Reliance on others and mutual respect were casualties of the access to lightning-speed information.

It’s also made us a little complacent about the people and things in our lives.

When you don’t have to put in the work to get the result, a little bit of the perceived value is lost.

There’s a lot of knowledge to be gained by listening to older folks.

For example, my husband, Jason, and I bought this newspaper in 2023. That process was a crash course in business practices, state and federal laws and a handful of other “good to know” things.

My parents, with their decades of combined knowledge of business management and accounting, were able to answer all our questions.

After three years of business ownership, I still don’t know all the things I need to know. There’s lots more to learn.

With time, knowledge is gained; but if you want to get a crash course in life’s wisdom, ask an older person.

And please, be patient.