Sometimes the Elderly are Right
This last weekend, Luke and I drove home to Michigan for an open house to allow our friends to meet Luke and celebrate our marriage-as they were not able to attend the wedding. We had a sweet time. The house was beautiful. Everyone stayed and watched the DVD of the wedding, visited and just enjoyed the time together. It was small and simple-just the way I like things to be. And the last ones did not leave until at least an hour past the time for the open house to end.
What was interesting, was that 99% of the people who attended the open house were elderly, and I didn't even know most of them. They were kind, and their attendance showed Mom and Dad that they really cared and were happy for them.
What was also interesting is that only one person showed up who I hoped would come. Where were all the others? It didn't even enter my mind that they might not come...it was inconceivable. I didn't get cards or emails saying they couldn't come. They just didn't. And honestly, at that moment, I was very proud of the elderly, who with all their faults and all their "stubbornesses", at least are polite and caring enough to attend or to send a card, even though they barely knew me.
I'm not posting this in order to whine about my disappointment in not seeing the people who I had hoped to, but to BRAVO those dear old people who showed me they cared. It kindof renewed my respect for them, with their time-old standards of etiquette and their experienced appreciation for marriage.
It is easy to feel annoyed that the elderly cannot change and mold into the culture like the rest of us. I myself have been ungracious at times...only seeing them as "closed minds" who choose rules in place of growth. But, even if that is sometimes true, they also value things which we should never have given up. Although their sense of etiquette is old-fashioned, I hope to have just such a sense!
What was interesting, was that 99% of the people who attended the open house were elderly, and I didn't even know most of them. They were kind, and their attendance showed Mom and Dad that they really cared and were happy for them.
What was also interesting is that only one person showed up who I hoped would come. Where were all the others? It didn't even enter my mind that they might not come...it was inconceivable. I didn't get cards or emails saying they couldn't come. They just didn't. And honestly, at that moment, I was very proud of the elderly, who with all their faults and all their "stubbornesses", at least are polite and caring enough to attend or to send a card, even though they barely knew me.
I'm not posting this in order to whine about my disappointment in not seeing the people who I had hoped to, but to BRAVO those dear old people who showed me they cared. It kindof renewed my respect for them, with their time-old standards of etiquette and their experienced appreciation for marriage.
It is easy to feel annoyed that the elderly cannot change and mold into the culture like the rest of us. I myself have been ungracious at times...only seeing them as "closed minds" who choose rules in place of growth. But, even if that is sometimes true, they also value things which we should never have given up. Although their sense of etiquette is old-fashioned, I hope to have just such a sense!
posted by Elizabeth | 10:52 AM
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