By: Enrique Aguayo

There is no reason to underestimate old people. On the contrary, we have to find the positive part of them: the Old Age is the highest stage of human existence, because people has wisdom of life, of the labor activities they carried out, of the knowledge they obtained from people; the old age is a maturity age where actions are taken after thinking very much about them (let’s observe young people: they are in a hurry to show their capacities, sometimes without thinking at all, which may lead them to failure), etc. So, living with old people does not only mean to take care of them, although, of course, they need us. The most important thing is to benefit from their wisdom: learn how to solve daily problems, to carry out some jobs the way they did, to learn how to recognize a good person from a bad person, etc.

From the above mentioned we can infer the social function of old people: to service others by means of their knowledge and experiences, that means to educate others because they are wise. For example: the carpenter, the plumber, etc., who cannot work anymore with tools, teaches the job to the younger.

The old age is a stage of joy and happiness: the old man is retired from economic activities, for this reason, he is not subject to a certain schedule, now he is the owner of his time and he is in total control of his existence. He can devote himself to the activities he most enjoys, because he is already retired: the carpenter spends his time with his grandchildren, the mechanic worker devotes himself to read poetry, and novels, etc.

It is necessary to educate children so that they are not afraid of being old: they must learn to carry out any activity and/or profession to earn money; they have to learn to save money so as not to depend on anybody when they get old; they have to take care of their body by leading an orderly life, physically and mentally hygienic, in order to have a good health; it is essential to fight against bad habits and vices (alcoholism, drugs, prostitution, and so on.) because they damage and hurt severely and hopelessly our body).

In brief, the old age is a stage, in life, full of knowledge and experiences that can help young people who know how to benefit from all this, through an harmonic and loving coexistence with old people [1].


Bibliography

[1] Aguayo, Enrique, “El Pensamiento Filosófico” by Emma Godoy, “Hoja Casa Editorial, México”, 2000, pp. 265-294.

Printer friendly page