Remember when you were a teenager? Some of us thought we had "the world by the tail on a downhill drag," as my father said.
Now that I've got a few decades and a lot of very varied experiences under my belt, I can look back on my youth with a lot more discretion.
I remember encounters with adults of great age and experience. Because I was an orphan, I had to live with many various adults being in charge of me. After all these years, I can look back and compare their guidance and words against what I know to be true today. Some of them still impress me as being wise. Others are just as stupid and in a few cases more than stupid than I thought they were when I was 16, 17, or 18.
Some of the things my dad said are no less true because he was a hopeless drunk. I am a gentleman in public because he made me realize how important it was. My dad drank heavily, but he tried to be a good provider and he was liked by almost everyone who knew him. He had a weakness, and my mother beat him up over it. It took me many years to discover that my mother was a closet drunk and gave us kids the impression that dad was the evil one.
Now that I'm "older" I am often disappointed when talking to teenagers. It sometimes makes me feel "old." But it frustrates me that some young people think that they know so much. They get just enough knowledge and accolades for what they know, and suddenly, they think they deserve deference beyond reason.
I really hate the casual and prolific use of vulgar language, which is why it was so difficult to watch "Good Will Hunting." (What a clever title) But there is the scene where Robin William's character is so disturbed by what "Will Hunting" has said, but after a few shots of scotch, he gets this satisfied, resolved look on his face. Then in the subsequent scene, he is talking to "Will" and he puts it so succinctly. I don't remember the exact words of Robin Williams' character so I'm going to simply write my own little scene now.
"I finally realized it. You can quote great books and talk about profound concepts and theories, but the truth is, you're just a kid. You can quote someone on the beauty of various places in the world, but you've never been there. You can quote great authors about the experience of love, but you've never been in love. You can quote great heroic stories, but you've never been close to death. Yeah, you've been picked on, but never threatened with real imminent death. You've read an awful log about life, but you've never really lived it."
But to be fair, I know plenty of adults who I could take the same attitude with. I just happened to focus on a teenager because of a recent run in. I've had similar encounters with people more than twenty years my senior. Ignorance does not honor age. Wisdom does not honor age. You can be 13 years old and recognize intelligence. You can be 95 and oblivious to a profound thought. But deep and abiding wisdom needs time to mature. If you are smart when you are 5 and you live to be 60, you will most likely be wise. If you are stupid and you live to be 90, you will merely be old.
There are many rabbit trails that could result from this post, but I will resist the temptation.
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