Our society was built on the backs of the men and women who came before us. Those who not only believed in it but also some who gave their lives for it.  These people are our older generation and they still have a lot that they can contribute to society if we just give them the chance to do it. The sad fact is that we usually don’t. We disregard them and put them in nursing homes as if they are a nuisance and not a wealth of information from which we can learn.

In our time of instant gratification and information we seem to have no time to “waste” listening to people who do everything slowly. They talk slower and ramble on when we just want them to get to the point, they walk slower when we have some place to go and want to do it quickly. They don’t have any interest in the technology that we can’t live without and we have no idea how they get along without it.

What we, as the younger generation, have forgotten is that just because something is old doesn’t mean it is useless. We treasure old cars and furniture and place a high value on them calling them antiques. Yet when our people get old we diminish them and treat them as if they are no longer of have any value to our society as if they have nothing more they can contribute and do not have a place in it anymore.

Grandparents are like gold and we need to teach our children that. They won’t be around forever and when they are gone it will be left up to us to hand down the traditions and values that they taught us. If we don’t know what those are they will be lost forever. It is sometimes hard to find time in our busy lives to visit or even call but regardless we should make the time. Our parents and grandparents still need us as much as we need them.

We need to start listening to our elderly. All of the old stories, though they seem tedious to listen too now, are important for our next generation to hear and learn from. It may take them longer to say but they do have something that they can teach us if we just take the time to hear them. If we don’t change the way we handle our older generation they will take with them the history, information and family traditions that we all cherish and take for granted. Remember that those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Keep these things in mind the next time you don’t have “time” for your elderly family members because one day we too will be the older generation and if we don’t change things now we too will be forgotten.