It is one of the most disheartening moments when you finally realize that the people you looked up to, placed on a pedestal to some extent, and thought had the answers to life and were living life, are not who you thought they really were/are. It is enlightening and disheartening the day you realize wisdom and knowledge does not increase with age. Yet, those who are older presume this to be true and treat those younger than themselves accordingly.
That is simply... Frustrating!
I cannot say for sure that they understand fully the demeanor in which they enact the belief that because they are older, that they know more and are wiser than I or you. Usually, it takes the form of them telling you you're not doing something right, you're missing the mark, you think too highly of yourself than you ought to, all the while they position themselves as knowing more and you ought to take heed to the advice they partake on you.
I will listen, but it is to my discretion whether I understand the advice to wise or not and take action.
Maybe, we are all guilty of doing this at one point or another. This may be a lesson to teach me how annoying, belittling, and arrogant it is. Trust me, I am learning! Now if I can only learn to prevent myself from doing it. Of course, that requires a daily consciousness of self and self actions, thoughts, and words.
The one thing I can say, is the more I come in contact with such foolish wisdom masked as a measurement of age, it makes me more and more inclined to draw away from the people I love, once loved to share every detail of my life with, and now, cringe at the very thought of having to talk more than five minutes with them.
It's the same feeling I got the day I realized not all friendships will last forever. People really are here for a reason, season, and a lifetime. The foolish thing I have always done and am working to cease doing is attempting to make those reason and season persons a part of that lifetime category. I'm learning when some people have just ran their course in my life. It hurts to have to walk away or slowly disappear when some of those people have played such a huge part in the most memorable moments in my life, were a part in so many happy and fun times, and helped me through the difficult moments. We change at different paces and at the point in which we change pace, we must also change the people we surround ourselves with because it is true, that we our only as strong as our weakest link. People cannot change people. Only GOD can.And Birds of a feather do flock together.
So, I ask myself, what are my options? Do I really have options if the people who I loved and once loved me enough to give me space to grow on my own begin to damper my light, trample upon my spiritual growth, and block the sunshine I need to sprout?
They are tough questions, that I need to answer at some point in time, but I won't, at least not right now.
I would first say that regardless of how you feel about individuals (regardless of how long they are significantly in your life, from a minute to a year and beyond) they were placed in your life for a reason. Mostly to learn from what they did right/wrong in life and for you to learn from them.
ReplyDeleteBlind intelligence or a false sense of intelligence masked in age is something I really don't like. Someone close to me used to play that card a lot when I was younger claiming her age entitled her to knowing what's wrong/right and respect. Seldom did I fall for it because age is nothing but a number, hey Aaliyah! lol
But seriously, there are young people who has experienced more in their short lifetime than 50 average joes around the way. It doesn't make them better or worse, they just know more than the average people. If that is the case, then there would be more old people on Jeopardy. If there was ever a litmus test for intelligence, it would be that show.
But that's just general trivia, when it comes to common sense intelligence, then more older folks would be smarter in my opinion because they've lived longer to experienced things.
However, the key word I would take away from all of my mumbo jumbo is "experience". It has no number and you can be as young as you want to be to experience 50 years worth of common sense or whatever.
It's not the age, but how much of life have you experienced in your lifetime for you to be "intelligent". It could be a small as getting to the DMV 30 minutes before it opens so you wont have to wait in line to Carpooling saves time (HOV lanes) and money (people chip in for gas) and it helps on the climate, indirectly of course.
The beauty of it all is that everyone experiences life differently so there is ALMOST never a concrete way of looking at situations. So when you think about it... is there a way to measure intelligence? Just some food for thought.