Whom Do You Trust Under 60?

When we were younger, our culture cry was “Don’t trust anyone over 30”. As always, youth and aging cultures clash on everything from tastes in music, to clothing, to morals. Because of this knee-jerk mutual-misunderstanding and mistrust, groups isolate themselves from one another, to both sides’ great loss.

This mutual alienation must not repeat itself now, for we are older, and as we age, we grow wiser. Most of the moral laxity and bad taste we see in our children and grandchildren, if we look carefully , may closely resemble our own juvenile actions and attitudes way back then.

I am not suggesting that we learn to love their music or wear their grungy clothing, but we do need to understand their “art of aging” process just as we need to understand and benefit from our own. We all, the young and the old, have to learn a little bit better “how to grow up”. We all need to learn new lessons of wisdom and new ways to make our inevitable passage of time a little more comfortable, a little less dangerous, more enjoyable and, especially, even more joyful.

By easing back on our prejudices and creating a more open awareness and acceptance of those different from us, we open a new freedom for ourselves as we age. Just because we aren’t as young and energetic and adventurous as we once were, we can still “think young”. Times are a-changing and life isn’t as it used to be, for young and old alike. Maybe if we get to know more youthful people, no matter what their age, we will begin to have more youthful, life-affirming ideas as well.

Come on, gang, let’s get with it. There’s lots of life in us old folks yet. Please view and listen to the attached little video. Turn up the sound and enjoy, bring a smile to your face. Feel what it is to be young at heart again.

http://www.zoph.net/hedwig/