I may not be “old”, but I am “older” than I was yesterday. I am technically older than I was when I began this post and with increasing age we should also be increasing our wisdom. Some people have to grow up unfortunately fast and others grow up so incredibly slowly. I cannot say if there’s a balance or a “perfect” amount to grow. I can say that I believe growth is important and we should take every opporutnity to grow.
I don’t often feel old, because I am not old. However, there are more and more times that something happens and I find myself pausing to contemplate. For example, today at Target a teenager asked her mom when they could go home and because she was “sick of doing pointless stuff.” They were at target to buy catfood. Now, I don’t have a cat (or a teenage daughter for that matter) but I hardly think feeding your pet is “pointless.” So it got me to wondering if, as a teenage girl, I ever acted that way to my mother. I probably did, and that makes me really sad. I know that teenage girls are in a league of their own, but moms don’t deserve that. They do so much for us (so do dads! you go dads!) and we don’t give them the respect they deserve. So there was that.
Right before I went into Target, I read the notofication of Elie Wiesel’s death. I have read Night, but I have not read Day or Dawn and they were in fact on my summer reading list. My first thought was that I should move them up and honor his memory, but that’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen because there are far more important/pressing things to tackle righ now. For example, thinking about Wiesel as a person and his impact on us. His books immortalize him in a unique way given his experiences and stories. I could have learned so much more in high school when I read Night, but I was young and stupid then. I am not going to make the same mistake twice.
Whenever I think of age and wisdom, the quote, “with great power comes great responsibility” always comes to mind. For a really long time I wondered why I kept associating age with power, but I think I finally figured it out. Have you ever met an old person that had NOTHING powerful to say? I have not. Some old people just command attention every.time.they.open.their.mouths.to.speak. Others, just have moments of brillance. Regardless, I am always amazed at how much more powerful the same words can sound coming from someone who is 80 than someone who is 40. That is great power. I’m still not sure about the responsibility though. I’ll save that for another day.
She’s Got a Whole PhD 