The Elders

The Artist's Parents by Philipp Otto Runge

It’s an honour to age. When human beings age, in general, they reach a stage of refined maturity (just like a good bottle of Porto wine).  I ask, what possesses a young and middle-aged person to disregard or even mistreat an elderly? 

Parents & Children

Last weekend, I heard two disturbing examples of a relationship between aging parents and their offspring.

I: A parent gets sick. A couple of adults are advised that their parent needs to be looked after. What do they do? They dump him/her in a hospital (under a false address) and keep receiving their parent’s retirement benefits.

II: A parent gets old and it is not advisable for him/her to live alone. The offspring takes him/her in; it manages to benefit from their pension by co-signing the parent’s banking account.

Do people (like the ones in these examples) forget who those aging, fragile, human beings are? Once upon a time they were young and healthy, they fell in love, they married, they had children, they worked to make sure their kids would not want, they loved and played with them and, towards the end of their life how do their kids repay them...? 

Senior Citizens & Society

I: A bus is full, an old lady with a cane enters the vehicle: no one gets up to offer her a sit.

II: A couple of old people walks, enjoy their afternoon and then decide to visit a museum. When reaching the main entrance: a young man brushes through them abruptly to enter first, opens the door and then let’s the door slam on the seniors’ nose.

III: A young couple gives birth to their first child. They struggle with the idea of putting the child in a day-care facility. Both of the child’s grandparents are retired and healthy: instead of leaving the child with one of their parents; they spend money they can’t afford, hiring a nanny (a total stranger). 

These few examples already give us an idea of how perturbed society is. 

The Elderly and Confucius

Confucius taught that we should seek to be a Man of Rén. Being so means realising that we are not alone and that everyone is responsible for either someone or something (be it a relative, the state or the world). He taught the Five Relationships but the one pertaining this article is:

 "Elder to Junior - there should be consideration among the elders and deference among the juniors"

Indeed, the elders should not misuse and abuse their status yet they deserve our utmost respect, and care, for being the symbol of nurture, experience and wisdom. 

Before mistreating a senior citizen, we should always remember that eventually we’’ll be in their shoes. 

“Do not do unto others what you do not want others do unto you”…I say…