Rituals of Old Age

How do you know that you grown either wise enough or old enough to start conveying wisdom and knowledge to younger people?  In our culture here in North America, there doesn't seem to be any consistent sense of this.  We know of lots of people that are older than us, but do we necessarily think they are wiser?  Also, we seem to have this sense that it's not our job to help others figure out how to do things better in life, or how to grow.  We'd rather keep to ourselves and not bug anyone.

Many of the cultures of this world place a great deal of value in learning from those who are older than themselves.  There is the matronly grandmother whom the younger women seek out for suggestions in raising children, taking care of homes, or how to work through troubles they may have with their husband.  There is the old, wise man whom the younger ones approach to learn their history, to hear what it means to be a man, and how to care for and protect their family.

As I have pointed out throughout this week's series, we here in North America seem to be sorely lacking rituals which mark the transitions from one stage of life to another.  The same thing can be said when people reach a more elderly age.  We start to (sadly) see them as a nuisance, or a drain on our time and resources.  Instead of being people who have rich life experience that they could pass along, we think of them as outdated, behind the times, and of little or no importance to our life.

In much of my reading, I have come to have a great sadness at situations like this.  It seems that we, in this Western, fast-paced way of life, may have actually thrown out the most important things, like family, learning from others, moving into different parts of life, and actually knowing what those parts of life really do mean.  So much seems to have been lost, and I, for one, hope that we can turn the page back and regain some of these things which truly have been lost.