Saturday 13 July 2019

The generation gap

Subject: FW: The generation gap.
 
Is there a psychological moment in life when, as a person you are released of your responsibilities, your duties, your ability to make decisions and hand them over to a carer to make them for you. Is there a moment when it's in your best interests to let go and allow the world to go its own way without you defining the course you wish to make in your personal contribution.
Of course in the case of dementia, or any other mental deficiency or perhaps if your physical capacity has deteriorated to such an extent that you can't make your bed or take care of yourself, then a carer is the best option to lend a hand. But is it the case, as one begins to slow down or become less able to run and catch the proverbial bus, are these the signs for pre-emotive action, of handing over the keys as it were and downsizing to fit a role which is defined by others.
The others may have your best interest at heart but is that enough to lay aside the individualism that made you a success, no matter how mediocre. There's a  suggestion that pride gets in the way of letting go, as if pride were a bad thing. Perhaps if we had more pride in ourselves and in the society at large then the norms in society wouldn't become so lax and determinate such that anything seems to go these days.
Having weathered so much, having guided ones family through many hiccups it's difficult to be advised that one now has to not only take advice but accept from now on. It's doubly frustrating when one is encouraged to accept advice when it's not even asked for, as if the giving of the advice is without its own blemish and that a different course of action, your course of action, is now irrelevant and out of date.

Are we ever out of date and is the younger generation always right. There is a cult of youthful profundity where new ideas always out rank the old and If we disagree are we letting the youth down from the conditional stimulation we have provided by never questioning their divergence from our own chosen path.
Is the moment of truth too early, do we have to accept that we are too weak to carry the flag anymore or be the individual who has been the main source of our strength through life.
There's a lot to be said for a carer, especially when we become frail but do not hasten the frailty by suggesting that it's now the time, when it isn't.

No comments:

Post a Comment