On Green Grass [View all]

[H2O Man]

"This world and yonder world are incessantly giving birth: every cause is a mother, its effect the child.
"When the effect is born, it too becomes a cuse and gives birth to wonderous effects.
"These causes are generation on generation, but it needs a very well lighted eye to see the links in their chain."
-- Jalal-ad-din Rumi, Persian Sufi poet


I'm likely a few days late for getting in on the discussions of the "generation gap" on this forum. For I am old, and try to think about things before expressing myself. You know how old people are -- and how frustrating it can be when they communicate inslow motion. My kids likely get annoyed when I raise what I consider an important point on a debate that took place 72+ hours before.

So I often find myself lstening to the boys debate some point ot another in another room, while I sit in a rocking chair with my grandson fast asleep in my arms. That chair used to belong to my great-great-maternal grandparents. It probably could have been thrown away a couple of generations ago, when padded rocking chairs hit the scene, but instead it ended up in my parents' attic when I was young. When they died, it was given to my older sister, who didn't want it because it was old. Luckily, my youngest daughter saved it from being sold or thrown out.

I'm surrounded by framed pictures hanging on the walls of my ancestors. My great grandfather moved his family to the U.S. in 1879, when my grandfather was four or five. I also have tin-type pictures of extended family members in Ireland from before the move, many of which were in te family bible they brought over. By chance -- if one believes in chance -- my grandfather's last living cousin saw me on television decades ago, was reminded of another of his cousins named Patrick, and contacted me. When I visited him, he gave me the bible that his mother -- my g-g-g grandfather's sister -- had when she served as the family historian. He said if we hadn't met, they would probably have been thrown out when he died.

Listening to my grandfather's cousin and his wife, both in their early 90s, helped fill in the blanks about many of the extended family members that I only knew of by name. It also presented some humor. His wife asked if my brother and I were republicans? The husband said, "Of course not! Look at their hair!" It wasn't only that they held republicans in contempt ..... she wanted to show us a room where they grew enough pot to last them a year.

Anyhow, when my now teething grandson woke up, I carried him around the house, showing him pictures of his ancestors. I tell him that they lived teir lives the way that they did, so that he can live his life the way that he will. He was more interested in gnawing on a teething ring, but I am confident that he will understand when he gets older.

After my grandson and son leave, I get back to thinking about this generation gap. This is not a hard transition, since my son frequently tells me about some "new" concept in raising children, as if I wasn't aware of it. (How did human beings survive in the pre-podcast era?) As an old seanchai, I think back to the words of a preacher -- one who lived long before me, and apparently was talking to a younger generation: "The thing that has been, it is the thing that shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1 )

Now, as possibly the oldest person on the planet, I have plenty of experiences ranging from being a young activist listening to and learning from older, more experienced people, to being an old person telling young folks about my insights. Some of the time these days, a few young people appreciate what I have to say, other times not so much. I keep in mind something that Oren Lyons, the Onondaga Faithkeeper, told me more than 40 years ago -- if you talk to a group of 20 people, and one "gets it," you have done well.

If I were to mention one young person who really values my experience, it would be my older daughter. She's a heck of a lot smarter than me, but not as experienced. She calls me at least once a week, to ask my opinion on some social-political issue that she is working on. This, despite her knowing I'll ask what the options are. Then we discuss the potential good and bad with each option. And then I tell her to trust her own judgement.

About a week ago, she sent me pictures from the Massachusetts new Attorney General being sworn in -- the first black woman to hold the office. My daughter used to work for her. She thought it was nice that my daughter frequently spoke of talking with me about issues, so much so that she called my daughter "Scout." Hopefully, not only old DU members will recognize this from Harper Lee's novel.

I'll end by saying this: if my daughter can learn from a decrepit specimen as me -- and I continue to learn from her -- then surely we are all teachers and students. And we are at a point when we do not have the luxury of divisions based on age, etc. Finally, our music was far superior in the 1960s and early '70s.

H2O Man