It is an interesting philosophical observation to realise that we can never know what it is like to be older. I know that on first encountering such a statement it is a self-evident truism. However within can be found a profound truth about the nature of life and wisdom. We always assume that those older than ourselves ... Specifically our parents and grandparents... are somehow past it and therefore their opinions are based upon an outmoded world-view. We never, with the arrogance of youth, realise that the one major advantage older people always have over those younger than themselves is that they have experienced being the age the younger person is. However a younger person can never ever state that they are aware how an older person thinks or feels because they have been that age. But there is more to this. when we are younger we never really consider in any meaningful way what it will be like to be older. if we do it is only in a very generalist, and assumptive, way. At twenty years of age being thirty is old and past it, then the thirty year old has the same opinions about forty year olds. We have all done this and, if we are young, we will all do this. But it is only when you reach a certain age that you know with absolute certitude what it feels like to be that age. I am now in my 61st year and I can look back on my life with a precise memory of what it was like to be 19, 34, 42, 56 etc. etc. What is also of profound importance is that we never appreciate what it is like to be young (by this I mean to be younger than we are now) because being older is an unknown country. but being older is a place that we all arrive it every second of our lives. life seems to pass us by before we realise that it is taking place .... I guess that this is the wisdom of the Buddhist concept of living in the now because in the final analysis that is all there ever is .... And then it is gone .... And for me such facts present a profound mystery, a mystery that motivates me to write. My work is my way of trying to answer the really great existentialist questions .... For some these answers are if no interest. they have all the answers ....for these individuals modern science has sussed it all out and old guys like me are counting how many angels can dance on the end of a pin .... And I know exactly where they are coming from .... Because where they are now is where I have come from and I know the terrain only too well .... But looking back along the path I can see better the route I have taken to get here .... But the route ahead is still clouded in mist .... And I have no option but to carry on .... :)
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:08:18 +0000
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