Hello Family. I will no longer be addressing you as friends and family because in these end times we need to see one another as more than just friends, acquaintances, or strangers wearing or not wearing mask. Let’s care about one another as we would one of our own.
This piece was sitting in my drafts for over a year. I got more than a couple of those titled or untitled that never made the cut. Let’s change that! Today let us slide back in time to my days working in the Food & Nutrition Department at Tennova Healthcare. Tennova, you either love or hate that place. I sure did love some of the people I worked with and got to see everyday. Me working five days a week in the Food & Nutrition Department. Me helping to make sure the faculty; staff; and patients were fed. The paramedics in and out of ER affectionately calling me Snack Man as they stopped by their small lounge to keep their energy up with snacks and beverages. Me dressed in black looking like a ninja(I prefer a ninja) or a priest without a bible in hand or a cross around my neck.
Date: March 4, 2020
Yesterday morning as I was working, making sure the doctors were fully stocked with food and drink, one of my acquaintances seemed to be unsettled about something. So unsettled that she was pacing back and forth across the room. As she did I couldn’t help but wonder if this is how I look whenever I’m less than thrilled. To my left, another acquaintance(a physician), who was in his fifties seemed unfazed by the matter she was going on about. Not that he didn’t care; he was just not getting worked up like she was. He was doing his best to reassure her that everything was going to work itself out. As I listened on and chimed into the conversation myself, I reflected on often that I get stressed. People like my parents don’t seem to stress about the things I do. The reason older generations tend not to stress when we young ones are pacing back and forth is because they have already gone through these situations. After the conversation , I couldn’t help but wonder what life would be like if everyone was my age.
While each of us has to make our own choices and think for ourselves, I believe it is very beneficial to have people in our lives who are older than us. We need our elders because they can give us the guidance and the knowledge we younger ones don’t have. I understand back in our parents’ and grandparents’ younger days that they didn’t have things like social media; iPads; smartphones; and any other technology that from their point of view seems like something from a futuristic tv show, but situations they endured then are not that different that what we go through now. Older generations have experienced discrimination, relationship issues, split families, inclement weather, war, loss, poverty and more. I can honestly say that if everyone on earth was around my age, I probably wouldn’t know how to handle things such as cooking, maintaining a vehicle, handling finances, and choosing wisely who to associate myself with.
Those who are older than you by a couple decades or so are living proof that life goes on. Though it is difficult for us younger generations in the moment to realize it, each day will get a little easier than the cruddy one we’re currently having. At the moment we may be feeling like nobody understands what we are enduring. But you’re older coworkers, teachers, parents, and grandparents will be the ones to remind you that nothing is new under the sun. Others have busted their butts at work. Others have had to go to extremes to make that money. Others have gone through heartbreak. Others have lost someone they care about. Others have had anxiety about their first child.
Those in your age range may be able to relate to you because they are going through similar matters, but older generations can better reassure you that everything is going to be alright and over because they themselves have gone through it and survived.
Present Time- September 23, 2021
I think back to over a month ago on a Friday night at my church. It was after a vespers service with my church fam. I was sitting in the church pews with Elder Jose Lewis and my dad. I was asking their opinion on a matter and as always they were willing and up front with me. After they gave their more than two cents I asked them if it was necessary for me to have gone to them for advice or if I was too old(29) to rely on feedback from others rather than trusting my judgment. Those who know my dad know he gave me a crazy look like Has he bumped his head?. Jose reassure me that between him and my dad combined I had decades of wisdom I could look to. I suppose that a person who doesn’t ask for wisdom is a person who isn’t looking to grow.
To quote a cartoon character who lives in a pineapple under the sea, “Old people are the greatest. They’re full of wisdom and experience.”
DavidSpeaks 