Old age and wisdom

Youth and inexperience will be defeated by old age and wisdom they say. I wish it were so. Unfortunately its a bit of a double edged sword. Yes the more mature still hold the hand of power in many ways and the wisdom of the elderly is valued, particularly the further east you travel, but in this country sadly not so much anymore.

Here one is classified as old by 50 and over the hill at 60, by 70 one is on the last adventure prior to dementia and 80 you are viewed simply as a hazard to navigation. Its a great shame because inside many of our elderly their lives experience, skill, wisdom and compassion sadly lacking in those of more tender years.

Here is a case in point, a couple of days ago I took a local elderly lady to hospital, she is 89 now and not in the best of health.. Her body is frail, but her mind is as sharp as a razor.. We were engaged in conversation about her time in Rhodesia when her husband taught young pilots how to fly when into the cafe, we were recuperating in, came a young couple who had just been to see the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight based at RAF Conningsby.. Not a million miles from the cafe.

They had two children about 6 and 8 and one had a red arrows blow up and the other a spitfire. Naturally they were playing with these toys and in the end their mother pulled the reigns in and sat them down. Dad spoke up, "if you want to be a red arrow or fly a spitfire you'll have to eat your carrots". I laughed quietly to myself and the lady opposite me smiled. I said "My mum used to say Cats Eyes Cunningham was a night fighter pilot in the war and ate carrots and I ate ruddy hundreds of them". The lady opposite said "must of done my husband some good". She said this because her husband was Pilot in the war and flew spitfires.

I looked at the kids with the spitfire and then at the lady in front of me and thought how brief life is and how sad it is that we do not make the most of people and particularly the elderly who have amassed so much experience. They really could teach us so much and yet are listened to hardly at all by the young. I think it is generational. I remember venerating the old and listening actively to what they said and what they had done. We had role models and our hero's really were very heroic. There was many to choose from and probably you had one or two in your own immediate family.. Not that they spoke much, bug you knew by their bearing and often dignity that they had experienced life.

Not so much now with instant fame simply earned by being a total dick or a youtube hero. There are many examples of this and none really edifies.

They say the hardest part of growing old is the loneliness. I am just getting to realise this, as I have no family of my own near by. I do not view myself as anything special, but some elderly folk I have met have lived lives that you would not believe if they made a film of it and yet they die every day, neither missed nor will they be remembered. A very great pity indeed for to die unloved and unwanted is a very great condemnation of a country that holds its elderly with such disdain. A woman recently died who had been a spy during the war and had received both foreign and British awards for her courage. She had no family and if it had not been for the local British Legion she would have had a poor person unmarked grave. This happens virtually every day as the generation that fought world war two thin out taken by old age. A lonely death and no one to morn or to say farewell. Sad.

But, it is not just the elderly but those of middle age we throw to the scrap heap just when they have amassed a wealth of experience and skill. Indeed, we face a mounting skill shortage as these chaps with once well practiced skills retire. Light and heavy engineers, for years under valued, are now in desperately short supply and for example our local saddler has retired unable to find an apprentice capable of taking on the skills it took him many years to acquire.

Examples of this are now sadly common. Kids do not want the labor involved in learning how to be a black smith or heavy engineer. Its a shame for the rewards are many when you can earn a crust with the sweat of your brow and the labor of your hands.

At more cerebral altitudes "ageism" in not so marked. The Consultant Surgeon, Senior Partner, those of the professions are not so marked for early retirement. Here wisdom is valued more for the steady hand it can give to more conservative and cautious fields of endeavor, such as commerce and trade. Perhaps there are good reasons for a classical education, so loved by the bar, medical and foreign office. One learns much from the elderly of Greece and the philosophers Rome. Indeed, much of value from History in general that if noted by the student stops one repeating its errors.. Well, it does if you know it. There by hangs the rub.. The young do not learn from history and so they learn the hard way.. Pity and frustrating for those of us now on the sidelines who could help avoid the pain of learning that way.... But we are not... !

Yesterday I popped over with another ex RAF chum to see a chap of some 90 odd summers who had been a guest of the Japanese during the war. He told of a time when after capture in Java in 1942. He was chopping wood when a Guard came around the corner and started looking for a bit of wood. Eventually he found one and then set about beating up this chap for no good reason. There first job was to level a mountain with hand picks and shovels to build an airstrip. His friend lost his eyes in the light of the first A bomb dropped on Japan and when he eventually returned to UK after four years of captivity he was given a new suite and sent on his way. His pay book simply says:
Rank on enlistment AC1
Rank on Discharge AC1

Medals and honor -  Burma Star
Comments. AC1  Smith (anon) has shown interest in becoming a Teacher.

and thats it. No mention of the fact that of the 350 members of his original unit only 50 were still standing at the end of the war. 300 of the others were basically starved and worked to death.

He now sits in his house alone most of the time following the death of his wife and goodness knows what thoughts go through his mind of his life and the times he lived through. Wisdom, if it is born of age, he must have in buckets full.