Learning From Those Who Are Wiser

When I was little I had a great relationship with my grandpa. Unfortunately he died when I was 11. The only other grandparent I had left alive was my grandma on my mother's side. She lives in the same small town as us and when we were growing up we saw her quite often.

When I was in grade 6 and 7 my class at school visited the local senior citizen's home and spent many an afternoon hanging out together. We were told that it is so very important to spend time with the elderly; we could learn so much from them and vice versa. I grew up with that mentality. I had an elderly lady friend who knew my family long before I was born, and a few times a month we would get together and have tea or read a book. This friendship went on for many many years. And whenever the opportunity arises I try to make friends with a senior citizen. They are so fascinating and view the world from a totally different perspective then I. Before our most recent move, Mr. J and I worked with an elderly couple at the company we worked at. We grew to really appreciate them and soon were getting together to share meals or play games. The other day they came to mind and I remembered how much we enjoyed spending time together with them and what we learned from them.

Which got me thinking about how we often hear about today's youth and their lack of interest in the elderly generation. We seem to think that learning family history is a dying interest to many youth. But thinking about my relationship with my grandmother, I wonder if there isn't two sides to the coin. Perhaps some of it is lack of interest by teens but I can't help but think that there seems to be a growing lack of interest by some elderly people as well. "Back in the day" weren't people influenced to a degree by the desire to make their family proud and not let down the family name? And now it doesn't seem as important.

My grandma though, she has never taken a real interest in me. She complains about how people never visit and how horrible her life is and how she's ready to die. But no matter how many times I visit, her outlook on life and family is always the same. I've tried getting to know her and for a while I visited her every day. But she could care less. To her I'm just someone who she can complain to about how crappy her life is.

So what is the problem? Is it primarily a lack of interest by teens? I don't think so. I think that yes, a lot of teens could care less about investing in the elderly citizens of this country but sometimes (and I'm not making a generalization, this is only sometimes) perhaps the elderly generation are tired of investing in the youth of this country.

How do I show my grandma I want to get to know her better? I don't  know. All I want is for her to take some pride in this family and to see the pride we have for it. I do know that I'm not going to let one bad apple spoil the bunch. For now I'll just continue investing my time and interest in those that would love to invest in me. And together we'll grow and learn from each other.