On the Spirituality page of the Catholic Peace Weekly, a religious sister working with the elderly asks the readers to go beyond differences in age to what we have in common.
A teenager asked: "Is there an age you want to go back to?" She gave it some thought but was sure she didn't want to go back to the past. It's not that she's satisfied right now, but knows how precious this moment is because it's the result of living her life thinking countless times about what's best, whether happy or sad.
The incident of assaulting an elderly person with abusive language on the subway or on the street appears in the news every so often, which she would like to forget. It's distressing seeing some teenagers vent their anger toward the elderly. Some people see this as the disappearance of education in table manners. In the past, before an adult raised a spoon, no one would hold a spoon first, even a grain of rice would be valued, and when meeting adults, they would be greeted politely, etc. Often human rights were taught at the table. The meal culture was important not only as a means of filling their hunger.
How is it these days? When a baby cries, you often see the parents giving them a smartphone rather than trying to figure out why they are crying. At the table even when the whole family is present it is not rare to see each focused on their smartphones and no conversation. The opportunity to know each others' thoughts and overcome differences is lost and individualism continues to grow.
Rather than asking parents, teachers, or seniors for advice on things one has not experienced, one searches for answers on the internet. Looking for information, it's okay without friends and family around oneself, one only needs a smartphone. We are not concerned with fellowship, communication, our emotional life, and building relationships, between people. The generation gap is getting deeper and deeper because we are not concerned with understanding the issue. To narrow the conflict gap between the younger and the older generation, communication and efforts are required to arouse generational sympathy.
The Sister mentions a "Generation Empathy" program in which the younger generation and the older generation communicated. Through the program, teenagers say they learned that "old people still dream, like to talk with excitement when they see flowers and want to belong to a community." Many of the young unconsciously thought the elderly would be unconcerned with ordinary emotional life. The Sister asked one of the older generations what they felt positive about becoming old.
"No one thinks of me as a competitor, so I have no enemies, and as I gain a lot of experience, I get wisdom, I get relaxed in front of mistakes, I understand other people's difficulties, I understand, I don't get angry, and people approach me...." The old man's voice, who was talking to the writer, became more lively and said: "I thought I was in trouble because I was afraid I would become a loner when I got older. But instead, when I let go of my greed a little bit, there seemed to be more good things!"
The younger generation looks at the elderly as seniors who have lived life first, and now the elders approach the young with care and concern that they may have the passion for life proper to their age to bloom. Wouldn't that overcome the generation gap? Wouldn't that be the starting point?
Because of closeness, we often fail to speak kindly to our family. She hopes today will be a day to say a warm word to parents and children so that each other's differences can be understood and respected as beautiful diversity.
