Wisdom and the Elderly

Wisdom and the Elderly

What comes to one’s mind when they hear the word “Senior Citizen”? a senior citizen is defined as anyone of retiring age and beyond, which in America is sixty-five and older. This is the question I arose when conducting my research on the topic of the elderly and how they are viewed and appreciated in today’s rapidly growing society. In order to compare and contrast a vast majority of opinions I interviewed two samples of people. The groups varied in age from 18 to 40. One sample was taken from a mixed population of Wayne State University students and the other from a popular local retail store in downtown Detroit. I also interviewed a senior married couple on Detroit’s west side. I was astonished to find in my interviewing sample as well as two personal interviews that many people of today’s culture in the American Society don’t even consider our ever changing population of senior citizens as sources of wisdom.

The first thing that I decided to research on this subject was public opinion via publications and media. In order to have a clear understanding of why certain things conclude the way they do there must also involve some history. In an article I found on the popular website “The Chabad” written by The Chabad Online Network in 2005, they speak of wisdom as something that is comparable with physical strength in today societies mind. It states the way this can be handled in different perspectives. “Ours is a society in which one's value is too often measured in terms of physical strength. This has engendered feelings of uselessness among many elderly, which in turn, contributes to depression.

The Torah perspective, which prefers wisdom to physical strength as a measure of value, holds the elderly in high esteem. For it is with age and the experience of life that one gains wisdom. Whereas the physical strength of an aging person may be diminished, the faculties of the mind are enhanced. It is for this reason that the elderly must occupy and utilize their mental faculties, and aspire to greater spiritual growth.” (growing old) Knowing this one could understand that although we grow stronger in other aspects of life our wisdom only matriculates with age.

In an article written December 2002 entitled “What is one of the best sources of wisdom for parents”; written by Mark Merrill he believes that our elderly contribute a great bit to the wisdom of our parents, who in return grant us the wisdom we have as growing adults. He feels that, “sometimes we don’t cultivate the greatness and history that lies within them like we should. We foolishly disregard the wisdom they’ve gained from decades of dealing with life's experiences,” (Merrill) he adds, “They’ve been married and sometimes divorced. They’ve been parents and have often felt the pain of rebellious children. Instead of ignoring this fertile source, we should cultivate it”. He concluded that we should take advantage of these resources pleasing them as well as ourselves. (Merrill) So why is it that the majority of population doesn’t consider our senior citizens valuable resources of wisdom the way some of these publicists do? This is what began the interview process for further details and input.

Wayne State University located in the midtown area of downtown Detroit was the next stop. With a legal pad and ink pen I wrote down five basic questions that I would ask fifty students to give their input on. The questions were; a) How would you rate the elderly in terms of percentages on their effect on society’s moral decisions? Of the fifty answers collected almost the whole sample (93.3%) felt that the elderly had only a twenty five percent impact on society’s moral decisions. When asked their elaborated opinions they replied, “I think that people just don’t have the time nor the patience to rely on the elderly for moral advice” said, Traniece Mills a college junior. “I just don’t think that the elderly understand that times have changed and they probably wouldn’t even be faced with the challenges that we’re faced with” commented Justin Khrager. Many shared the same opinions and expressed them in a variety of words.

The next question was; b) in terms of percentages, how many difficult situations in your life do you think could have been avoided with the help of elderly advice? Again an astonishing ninety-two percent used percentages below the twenty- fifth percentile. Comments included that our senior citizen’s result to what a lot of today’s people don’t reference to and that’s religion. A lot of my responses to the questions besides the numbers, dealt with