Day 9 of 30 Day Writing Challenge

Day 9: My feelings on Ageism



Ageism: prejudice or discrimination on the basis of a person's age.

I don't understand why the young and the elderly have to be at odds with one another. How many times young people get unfairly marked ONLY due to the fact they haven't been on the planet as many years as others. Why does the amount of time spent physically on this planet need to correlate with the validity of one's thoughts, gifts, talents or discoveries? We would all like to think that the longer you live here, the wiser you become because you learn lessons along the way but that is just not across the board truth. I know 50 something year-olds who still make the same relationship mistakes as people my age and younger. I see elderly treating and reacting to situations in ways my students handle them and my students are 7-14 years old. 

And even though we can look back at history and see everyone's mistakes, we still find some need to think we are different and that we need to make our own. Why? Why this crazy thought that we are different? And by different I don't mean that we all think the same, have the same process by which we learn or process information but that at our core, we are human. Our biological functions are the same, our need to feel appreciated is the same, our desire to feel human connection is the same, our at some point trying to find out why we are here is the same. What is all of this? What is the point?

Yet, even though we are all inherently the same, each group of people thinks they are better than the other. Young people worship their youth and despise the wisdom of those who have gone before them. The elderly despise the youth because of the youth's pride, and also because we think it's wasted. The old adage "If I knew back then what I know now...". Unfortunately, the older one gets, the less useful they seem because they aren't able to physically give as much to society or their thoughts are seen as outdated. Even though one could say the same about babies, babies are human symbols of hope. Of something that hasn't been tainted or jaded and helpless to fend for themselves so we tirelessly take care to keep them safe. 

What if the elderly were seen as symbols of hope? Hope of our future in heaven if you believe in that. If you don't then I could absolutely see why the elderly are despised. They are the symbol of your poor future where no one will care about you and love you even though you did and gave everything to them. To me they are hope. They by appearance, are closer to Paradise than I am and have been through this passing bus stop longer than I and have an abundance of thoughts and wisdom. Even if it's not all correct, who is?? 

Young or old, we are all the same. We need to treat each other with respect and dignity.