When I was a young boy I used to wonder about old people and what their purpose was. It did not seem to me that old people had much of a purpose. They didn’t work, they seemed not to spend much money, they did not seem to like new things, and they seemed to use too much electricity and heat in the winter time. Of course being a little kid, there was a lot of the world I did not understand and I only had my limited experience to base my thinking on. Fortunately I grew out of that mind set, but a few others around the world have not.
I see old people in a whole new light, that was not possible when I was a boy. There is a (now) old book, Lord of The Flies, written by Nobel Prize winning author William Golding, about (cough) children ruling the world. The book takes place on a deserted island, where a group of boys try to govern themselves without much good coming out of the process.
A second book which had a great impact on my thinking was Animal Farm, written by George Orwell which addresses social issues using animals on a farm, and how a system of government becomes twisted to meet the needs of a few, to the detriment of the many. Both of these books are worth while reads for anyone who is dissatisfied with the way a democratic government governs itself.
Other people had to resolve issues that I did not have. For example, people who can not function in society for any number of reasons. I used to hear what I thought at one time were very conservative people sagely stating prisoners and other ‘faulty’ human beings should done away with, as they serve no purpose. I came to realize that these utterances come from people who either never had the opportunity for an education, could not complete their education, or spend their lives living in fear, and everyone not like them is the enemy.
The litany of faults goes on and on for these people, it covers the gamut of skin color to belief systems. People who think this way miss is we are all one. There is no you over there, and me sitting here. Anytime anyone starts to think that they are an individual and everyone else is distinct from them, go outside at night and observe the stars. The Milky Way itself is stunning here in the southwest when traveling away from the city, I wish everyone could view the Milky Way as I can!
When looking at the Milky Way, it becomes apparent how we are just one little pin point of light among uncountable points of light. When looked at from that perspective, it is easy to see that every thing on our little speck of a planet is one, none of us are separate from everyone else.
Because we are all one, everyone of us that takes a breath should be important to all of us. Those old people I used to wonder about are old and out and about because they spent their lives working for that right. They were also lucky enough not to suffer any illness of a magnitude that it cut their life short. They are also our ancestor memory so to speak. The world is changing so fast, and now appears to be changing in a different direction. We need their memories of how things were done in their day, and the days of their parents. Some things in their lives that they dealt with daily would be major problems in our pampered lifestyle of today.
