Listen To Your Elders

“There is gold, and abundance of costly stones; but the lips informed by knowledge are a precious jewel.“ Proverbs 20:15

For centuries (and still today in some cultures) the elders were venerated and looked up to. Their advice was sought on many levels, whether where the best hunting areas might be, which herbs were useful for cooking and which might proved helpful in maintaining good health or how to appease the gods and everything in between. The knowledge that the elders had accumulated over the years was acknowledged and used.

Then as life became easier for people generally there was a turning away from the wisdom of the elders. It was no longer needed by the next generations. They had specialists, highly trained individuals, to answer their needs. Life was good. They could do anything and go anywhere. There were no limits on what was possible. The old people became a burden, slowing down their lives and so many of them were put away in homes where they would be with others like themselves and where someone would be paid to look after them. Then came the pandemic and many of the elderly died alone, away from their families and those that loved them. Their wisdom died with them.

As we all know now, this was not just a story in a novel or a nightmare but an actual event not only this year with COVID-19 but 100 years ago with the Spanish Flu and before that in the various plagues throughout history. However this time because many of the elders lived in congregate settings instead of with their families, the death toll and the loss was much higher.

I am seeing a reaction to this loss, an attempt by people to find and keep some of this wisdom available for future generations before it is too late. One family that I’m aware of has hired someone to come and interview their 80+ year old mother and then bring back the notes once they are written up for confirmation. The end result of this will be a book. Another friend is writing her second book of family memories spurred on by her daughter’s urging. Personally the birthday present my son gave me this year was a membership on a website that encourages me to write the minimum of one story every week for a year prompted by weekly questions. At the end of the year, a book is published of the stories and pictures (which my son has said will be his!) Other people that I’ve talked to have reported similar things. As Sherlock Holmes would say, ‘The game’s afoot!’ Nor do I think this is just coincidence.

Over the past year of uncertainty we have seen this wisdom disappear without a trace in many cases, without children and grandchildren having a chance to ask those things that they would like to know. Suddenly it doesn’t seem safe out there any more, the world has become a scary and unpredictable place, where life as we knew it has turned upside down in an instant. And so we go back to the teaching preserved in the Bible~ “Remember the days of old, consider the years long past, ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you.” Deuteronomy 32:7

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