RESPECT FOR ELDERS

October 9, 2015

I planned to write today about this topic because I have observed that the new generation seems to be losing it.  Maybe because they are overly-exposed to everything that happens in the world even up to its farthest regions that they seem to have this attitude that they already know everything.  When I am talking to my nephews, nieces and godchildren, they seem to be innocent only up to the age of 2, but every time they get a year older, they seem to have grown up emotionally, mentally, and verbally faster than their physical growth.

However, the one thing that lasted for thousands of years--GOD’s written WORD--reminds us in the Proverbs that Wisdom, the supreme virtue which we must all seek, mandates that we respect our elders.  I can relate to the exasperation of my grandparents, mom, aunts and uncles, grand-aunts and grand-uncles, brothers and cousins and in-laws, when they scold my nephews and nieces and their words seem to just come in one ear and go out of the other.  I’m sorry guys, but for this generation which lives every minute of the day with their earphones attached, nothing comes in unless it is the latest Billboard music.

Even in the office, I can see some of these attitudes coming out of the latest generation of public service workers, especially if they have professional licenses to back them up.  I don’t know if it comes from being brainwashed in school, but apparently, these people felt a sense of entitlement, like they truly believe that the world owes them an obligation to be noticed and accommodated well everywhere they go.  Why wouldn’t they, when the mass media is so glaringly one-sided in emphasizing them to be the future hope of the nation, but so conveniently omit in emphasizing that when our de facto National Hero uttered those words, he meant to say that the youth are not merely our trinket treasures, but the kind of people one can depend on to do their duty and take on the responsibility of leaving a good legacy for those who will come after them?

Somehow, I cannot blame the kids because even those who have come before us and even among our generation, many likewise are remiss in fulfilling their responsibilities to GOD, His natural creation, and to the rest of humanity in general (with its virtually unlimited diversity of personalities, starting with the irritating neighbour a few houses down, who is actually just having a bad day at work and a difficult marriage and family life, and whom we backbite and tell our friends that they are not being nice).

I guess to earn respect, one must respect one’s self first.  For my part, I who belong to the getting-older-hopefully-wiser-cross-fingers club, can only do my best to show some respect to my elders and those in positions of authority if I am to expect to be shown the same courtesy in the future.  And I hope that FUTURE will be brighter and more meaningful, even if the NOW that leads up to it is bleak, heavy with dust, smog and traffic, and economically hard up.