Webster defines Curmudgeon as :
1 archaic :miser. 2 :a crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man.
After reading my last two posts, I think i’m getting there. My post about Google was from the point of view of someone against change, or at least suspicous of groups that want to tell me where and how to live. The post about “Its a city” sounds like I’ve become one of those groups.
I got slapped down by the younger set at the Temecula Group. After they told us that the world was changing and we best get used to it, I posited that a little gray hair might mean that we had something called wisdom. I was told that I was arrogant. How dare I come from a position that age brings experience which brings wisdom. Who the hell was I to tell the young what was going to happen. I meekly tucked my tail between my legs and limped off the field.
The young know everything. They feel. They are right. They know things. The old smile and nod. They know things too. They know that they felt the same way 40 years ago. They also know that minds change with experience. They know that eventually the piper must be paid.
The young are invincible. If they fail they can start over. I used to think that I always had more than half my life yet to lead. Now. Not so much. Do I really want to act like I did when I was 25 or 30? Caution to the winds? A new job every 3 years? I could always start over.
I don’t want to be a curmudgeon. But I have become one. How can I temper my curmugeoness with that wisdom I know I must have. Maybe I can fix it.
I make a point to greet every dog I see on the street. I smile at new mothers with their babies. I over tip breakfast waitresses. I listen more than I talk. I look at my job not as work but as an extension of my life. Vacation? Maybe a change is good, but two weeks cleaning sand out of places where it shouldn’t be isn’t helping the crusty part. Someone told me the other day that they go on three or four cruises a year. They love it. Wow.
There is no questions that as we age we tend to get lazy. So I set myself goals — a blog a day, 10,000 steps, lose that extra 15 pounds, read three books a week. stop doing the things my staff complain about. buy breakfast for that table of cops once in a while and don’t tell anybody (whoops). Change stuff. Listen to youngsters but don’t believe everything I hear. Question. Get back in physical shape.
OK — that’s how I’m going to blunt the curmudgeon in me. I’ll get back to you in a few months and let you know how it goes. Or you could just read my stuff here and you will know before I do.
JVH
One Response
“The years teach much which the days never know.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.” – Oscar Wilde
Of course the world is changing, it has been since the beginning of time. We (Baby Boomers) have seen more changes in our lifetime than any previous generation. What the youth of today (and ourselves in our youth) fail to understand is that it rarely changes in the way you think it will, and that even if it does it is still going to keep on changing again and again.
Our experience has given us a cynicism of change that is more about the fact we realize (through experience) that nobody can say exactly what tomorrow will bring. We are Realists in that we expect change, but are doubtful that it’s going to occur just the way the “experts” predict. We have experienced the results of the many, many unintended consequences of all these changes over our lifetime, and as a result we play Devil’s Advocate and ask questions that can’t be answered.
Every generation thinks they know it all, from their preteen years to old age, and every generation is going to make their share of mistakes. I hope it stays that way forever, this world would be a mighty boring place if everybody agreed with everything or was totally comfortable with an “as is” existence.