A Flipped Script

Alright kids of America, follow me on this one.

Tonight I took a departure from my normal evening activities (killing things in Fable) for a while and went to spend some time with someone. I am admittedly fascinated with the business world, organizational development and change, business politics, etc. So I went tonight to talk with my good friend Mike's grandad. Mike's grandad, Don, has been a huge player on the Organizational Development scene, apparently. I realized this after he tossed book after book and article after article at me taht he had either written, edited, or was 'good friends with the author'. I just sat and listened to him talk for well over an hour about his experience in the field, his advice for a wide eyed youngster, and how simple business can be if you know the right questions to ask.

Don, of course, has been overseas and worked in many international companies. He was telling me how well respected he was in China just for the mere fact that 1) he had grey hair and 2) he had special knowlege about something...something being OD. Before this, he was telling me about how hard it was for him to go back to school to study OD at the Masters level. It wasn't hard academically for him to transition in, but he said it took him years of application and nagging to get the admissions staff to let him in. Why wasn't he get enrolled as soon as he applied? 1) Because he had grey hair and 2) because he had special knowledge about something...the working world. Although he wasn't trying to make a connection about the cultural disparity between Americans' negative outlook on ageism and the Chinese embracing of the elderly as sages, I found it striking at how messed up we view old people in our society.

Think about it people. We in America admire youth. We look up to brash arrogance, temorary beauty, outlandish antics, and just good ol' getting into trouble as things that are to be desired...things associated with youth. We glorify youth, as can be seen in any commercial advertisement for anything under the sun. To be young and stupid with a belly full of ire is more desirable in this country than to be old, slow to speak, and wise. We shy away from the elderly, we dismiss their stories and tales as ramblings, and we tend to associate them with a sort of buffoonery-like old people are only shadows of the young people that they used to be. I know this is true because this is how I think of the elderly from time to time! But as I was fascinated by Don's life expriences-his simple, yet sage wisdom and his straightforward kindness-I could not help but lament the fact that most people my age will never take the time to care about what they could learn from someone who has journeyed far ahead of us in life...and lived to tell about it.
This passing wind of Youth is the vanity of vanities; I hope that by the time I'm old enough to tell stories, they will consist more of knowledge, and less of vacuous stories about how I tried, and failed, to pin down a wind.