We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us. Marcel Proust
I have lived long enough to know when things are not right. I can assure you, things are not right in America. I understand the culture of ageism, and that is just another wrong. The people who refuse to interview, hire or fund someone over 45, are merely trying to eliminate powerful voices of wisdom from society. The world is in rapid decline, especially in the US. Those in power want to normalize the horrific conditions in this country. Many of us lived in better days, not perfect, but better. It is time those with less life experience started start a conversation with those souls who have walked the well worn paths.. All of you under 45 or settling for a society of hopelessness.
A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit. David Elton Trueblood
Has anyone read Jeffery Pheffer’s book Dying for a paycheck? See here:
How work kills us
RONALD REAGAN once quipped that they say hard work never killed anyone-“But I figure why take the chance?” Yet things…www.economist.com
For those of you too young to remember, there was a day that companies valued employees. Employees had job security and did not worry about retirement. Retirement day was usually a recognition of a life well lived. Now it is for most Americans a day of fear.
How will I live?
With layoffs, no pensions, higher retirement age, cost of insurance and the age discrimination in the work force…retirement is almost a death sentence. Working conditions have not always been perfect, but there was a short time in history that companies were proud to take good care of those dedicated employees who gave years of service. Workers today are treated as worthless and replaceable. The crisis it is causing is undeniable. Those who have the stories of the downfall of work in America are not welcome at the table. Corporations have a downright barricade up, they are not hiring anyone who can bring wisdom to the conversation. They are hiring lower cost, less experienced, and workers who accept the bleak future of work in America. Employees of all ages should work together to bring back the high value of human capital. Workers affected by ageism should become a voice against the attempt to portray age as an illness.
It is not just at work that changes that affect quality of life are downgrading our existence. Many young people do not understand the battles won in the past to give woman, people of color, the disabled, the poor and the sick a better life. Currently all of this work is being shattered. There have been better days. In the not so long ago past, more people had access to a doctor, a dentist, home ownership, affordable education and a retirement. The powers that be are trying to say “those days are over.” But why is that? Inequality is the cause. The shift of financial gain, excessive financial gain has been routed to just a few. Everyone else has been thrown under the bus. The people who lived and worked under better days can guide us to a better place with one hand in the past stepping boldly into the future. The decline and the creation of our crumbling lives is all manmade. Wisdom can change the future. History allows us to learn what we hold dear and what we discard. Those with experience share with those who have no comparison the keys to a better tomorrow for everyone. Today we are being taken back to a time we should not want to return too regarding social norms. The sixties were a time of human transformation.
The sixties were a time of introspection of the value of the human spirit. So much changed. But over the past twenty years we are regressing to a darker more sinister past.
Perhaps the youth of America should work with a hippie of the past. Maybe…just maybe the two generations can respect one another and truly begin to solve the problems that are dismantling the fabric of our society.
When time is limited, purpose is heightened, unless of course hopelessness sets in. To solve work and cultural problems we need to listen to those who have seen this before. Not the bitter ones that are reduced to hate and blame, but the idealist that have a heart in the cultural revolution. Or maybe listen to those whose parents lived during the Great Depression and WWII. From stories we make better choices and better envision the world we want to live in.
No matter who you are, the world will break you. No one is exempt. It is those who have been broken and then are able to rise again, that can offer the world the wisdom needed to create a better place. Society is shutting their voice with insults and doom. Yet these are the voices we need at work and in life. The souls that search for ideals that serve mankind. There have always been the self serving greed mongers that attempt to own the world. It is the reflective souls who have lived and seen the tragedies of life and know they can be remedied by the ideals of transformational ideals of service, rather then ownership of the lives of others.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. Ernest Hemingway
The souls who have marched through life with many disappointments and hardships and can still see possibly are the richest among us. To push them aside is ignorance. A perfect team is those who have an open book and those with many chapters continuing to write. My son tells me I think like a young person. Rather I would say I think like a person.
Keep an open mind
Shining like the sun
Light the sea
light the sky
Neither old nor young
-Kandace Springs
That is the point, we are people. All of us in this journey called life. No one should be shut out of participation. We all need each other.
Our society is in need of the understanding we all are the same. We want love and understanding at all stages of life…
A coin tossed that won’t get lost
May the young in you should find the old in me and May the old in me should find the young in you. The connection that unites us for tomorrow.
Old man look at my life,
I’m a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
I’m a lot like you were.
Old man look at my life,
Twenty four
And there’s so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two.
Love lost, such a cost,
Give me things
That don’t get lost.
Like a coin that won’t get tossed
Rolling home to you.
Old man take a look at my life
I’m a lot like you
I need someone to love me
The whole day through
Ah, one look in my eyes
And you can tell that’s true.
Lullabies, look in your eyes,
Run around the same old town.
Doesn’t mean that much to me
To mean that much to you.
I’ve been first and last
Look at how the time goes past.
But I’m all alone at last.
Rolling home to you.
-Neil Young
Today is Friday, July 20,2018
Posts and photos @Pinterest
Old man photo on Etsy. A reproduction from the work of T.C. Chiu
Originally published at medium.com