Wisdom of Elders
This week I saw an article entitled "Six Tips From Your Future Self" by Dr. Karl Pillemer. The premise was that if you could meet your older and (presumably) wiser self (say, 50 years from now) and ask for advice, what would it be? Since clearly such a scenario is impossible, Dr. Pillemer did the next best thing: He canvassed 1,200 older Americans (ranging from 60 to 108 years) and asked what advice they would give the younger generation. Specifically they were asked, "What mistakes should younger people avoid?" and what are people "most likely to regret when they get to the end of life?"
What I liked about this article was its logic and good sense. For heaven's sake, if anyone has been-there-done-that, it's the older generation. Yet in keeping with human nature, the younger people in our society continue to dismiss the older generation as a bunch of fuddy-duddies who can't possibly have any knowledge or insight about today's issues, problems and woes.
Right.
So what are the six things the elders advised against? 1) putting too high a priority on money; 2) getting into debt; 3) worrying too much; 4) excessive drinking and drugs; 5) rushing into marriage before you're ready; and 6) passing up opportunities.
These are, I think you'll agree, sensible and logical precautions. So many of life's problems can be linked to one or more of these mistakes. If only our society were in the habit of heeding our elders, how much misery could be avoided?
Patrice Lewis - 30 Dec 11 - WND
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on -
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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Look, I really don't want to wax philosophical, but I will say that if you're alive, you got to flap your arms and legs, you got to jump around a lot, you got to make a lot of noise, because life is the very opposite of death. And therefore, as I see it, if you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy, or at least your thoughts should be noisy and colorful and lively.
- Mel Brooks
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
~ anonymous
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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04 Jan 2012 - TheTelegraph
By Donna BowaterDespite being known as the world's most famous scientist, Professor Stephen Hawking has revealed that he, like many other men, spends much of his time thinking about women.
In an interview with the New Scientist magazine to mark his 70th birthday on Sunday, January 8, he was asked: "What do you think most about during the day?" to which he replied: "Women. They are a complete mystery."
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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Some of the best lessons we ever learn we learn from our mistakes and failures. The error of the past is the wisdom of the future.
- Tryon Edwards
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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It is no longer enough to be smart -- all the technological tools in the world add meaning and value only if they enhance our core values, the deepest part of our heart. Acquiring knowledge is no guarantee of practical, useful application. Wisdom implies a mature integration of appropriate knowledge, a seasoned ability to filter the inessential from the essential.
- Doc Childre and Deborah Rozman
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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Age is nothing but experience, and some of us are more experienced than others. - Andy Rooney
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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Age is sage
By PsychologyToday Staff, published on November 01, 1993 - last reviewed on June 21, 2011
The mind may lose a certain nimbleness over time, but even the ancients recognized it gets something in return: wisdom, judgment, and expertise.
Surprisingly, few researchers have attempted to look systematically at the psychology of wisdom before Paul B. Baltes, Ph. D., rose to the task. The director of Berlin's Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education, he has been comparing the performance of younger and older adults on tasks involving wisdom.
The "fluid mechanics" of the brain, dominated by biological conditions, probably does decline with age. But wisdom is an area where the power of human agency and culture comes into play—and it can improve with time.
On tests that measure a person's ability to manage "the peaks and valleys of life" and insights into "the quintessential aspects of the human condition," older adults often outperform young-uns. They rank right up there with public figures deemed wise, clinical psychologists, and experts trained to advise others about life's meaning and conduct.
Older adults also reflect well on difficult dilemmas of life, such as how to respond to a suicidal phone call from a friend. And they came up with good advice for a 15-year-old girl who wanted to get married immediately. They demonstrated factual knowledge (by generating options), strategic knowledge (how to obtain more info, cost-benefit analysis), knowledge about the contexts of life and societal change (issues of the individual's stage of life, relations between life domains), relative values and goals, and considered the uncertainties of life.
"Over the years, one develops organizing principles that enable a senior person to solve problems in work and in life and do it efficiently," says Penn State's Warner Schaie "So I can proceed more efficiently, though I may take more time to devise a particular solution to a specific problem."
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Permalink Reply by James Robertson on
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When I can look Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange - my youth.
~Sara Teasdale
© 2012 Created by Norm Fisher.
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