The Elderly

There's so much we can learn from our elders and the lives they have lived. We can learn which paths to avoid in life, and which ones we would be wise to pursue. The elderly, no matter who they are, have made it as far as they have in life for a reason. That reason is to pass on the knowledge they have accumulated throughout their lives to the generation that comes after them. By far the elderly person that I most admired was my grandfather. He had done so much with his life and always had an endless fountain of knowledge that he kept widely available to me throughout his life. Thinking about the elderly makes me wonder what I'll be like in the next fifty or so years. Will I be wiser? Will I have significant knowledge and ideas to pass on to the generation that comes after mine, or will I have nothing to offer them because I had misspent the life I was given? Thinking about this topic makes me want to seize the day all the more because every experience that I have in my life can be turned into a lesson that I can pass on to my children and grandchildren should I have any. The elderly have a lot to offer us, there's no denying that, but with their age also comes a variety of touchy issues. We all know that when you get older, you become less sharp, your senses dull, and you lose the ability to do certain things that you were able to do when you were younger. I know it seems callous, but I think that if your motor skills have gone, it's only common sense that your legal right to drive should be revoked. To me, that's just a matter of public safety. Another thing that bothers me, but can't really be helped, is the fact that the elderly get the same voting rights as younger people on issues that won't affect them since they'll be dead by the time certain laws go into effect. The elderly can vote for candidates and issues that will more affect younger people than themselves and while that frustrates me, I don't think they should necessarily have less of a say in such matters. The elderly are important because they have paved the way for our generation. We are standing on the shoulders of the giants that came before us, and an unfortunate fact that often goes overlooked is that the younger generation often forgets that. We need to honor and acknowledge our elders for paving the way for us while they are alive, or else we'll regret that we didn't when they are gone.