Picture: Image created with DALL-E
OLDER folk are a crafty bunch. They have been around the block several times, and they know the tricks of the trade.
In fact, a friend told me that his grandfather once told him that when he was a young boy, you could walk into a grocery store with a shilling coin in your pocket and walk out with a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, a little butter and some change.
The old man sighed. “But not these days though … These days there are too many damn cameras!”
All I am suggesting is that young people should be wary of summing up the ‘oldsters’ as incompetent fools when they observe their doddering steps and how the old folk just take so long to do the simplest of tasks.
The youth should realise that old age is approaching at a rate of 365 days every year. So let us embrace the lesson: How we treat older generations today sets the example for our own future. If respect and care are taught now, we may one day receive the same in return.
So, based on what’s just been presented, we could all ask if there ever is a time when a bit of impatience and disrespect towards an older person is acceptable?
Consider this scenario: A policewoman at a roadblock orders a pensioner to stop. The driver, old enough to be her grandfather, must have rolled to a standstill too slowly for her liking, because she proceeded to bark at him: “Didn’t I tell you to stop!?”
He told me personally that he was not impressed with the constable’s attitude, but remained calm and respectful, because you never know how a cop would respond to being chastised for having bad manners.
I had a similar run-in at a roadblock a few months back. Having just taken ownership of my car after it had been in for repairs, I had forgotten to attach the licence disk. A young officer, probably in his mid-to-late 20s, looked at my expired disk and informed me: “This car is not legal!”
It struck me that I had the replacement disk, but so much had been going on that I had forgotten to attach it, and I said, under my breath, “Oh shoot!” (as in “shoot me now, because I feel like an idiot!”)
The young man became agitated, scolding me and saying, “It’s not about ‘oh sh*t!’ … It’s not about ‘oh sh*t!’ Your car is not legal!”
I eventually managed to explain that it was just an oversight on my part. But all the while I was thinking … Is disrespect and rudeness taught at our police academies, or do these young people learn their rotten manners at home?
Yes, there are many of our officials in blue who are very courteous and respectful, but the bad apples can make the batch seem unappealing!
Whatever the case may be, if things like these are not addressed by our society today, I fear for the society that we will be tomorrow.
Ultimately, there are some things young people have to admit they don’t know. Perhaps the following story can illustrate that.
An old man and a 20-year-old were playing a game of golf one day. While playing a long par 5 that doglegs around some tall trees, and as the 20-year-old was setting up his tee shot to hit onto the fairway, the old man said, “When I was your age we used to hit over the trees – not around to the side. We’d get eagles every time.”
So the 20-year-old, eager to show his skill, readjusts and tries to hit over the trees – but can’t clear them and loses his ball. He tries again and loses that one too …
It was then that the old man said, “Of course, when I was your age, the trees were only about two metres tall.”