BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – There are just some things that we will never learn from books or the internet. These are things which could only be learnt through direct contact with those who would have successfully traversed several decades of time. They stand, though frail, as the guardians of history and as stalwarts of strength and integrity.
The admonishment therefore, is simple yet profound; we must all arrive at the point where we view those older members in our society as the “treasures” that they are and tap into them for the “wealth of wisdom” that they possess.
October 1 is internationally recognised as the Day of Older Persons and locally, the observance stretches over an entire month where the contributions of the older persons on the island are highlighted.
“We regard them as our treasures. We recognise that without these people, we would not have been here today. They really build this country and those of us who are benefitting now from opportunities that did not exist 50 years ago, we need to be very grateful to them for all of the struggles that they had.
“And they did not have the opportunities that we have today, so we need to be grateful to them because we are really standing on their shoulders. And very often, people tend to forget this; they just treat them as old people but they have done their part for this country and we need to appreciate them for that,” Minister of Social and Community Development Marcella Liburd, expressed to members of the media during a Month of the Elderly Media Outreach session.
She further suggested that the wisdom of the elderly is immeasurable, invaluable and an incredible resource for younger generations. This, she said, should inspire persons and should give birth to a willingness to sit under the tutelage of the elderly, where life’s lessons could be learnt.
“We also treat them as our source of wisdom. Yesterday (Sunday, Sept. 1) at the church service, I was trying to make a distinction between wisdom and education in the formal sense. Because very often people think that because they have 10 ‘O’ levels with 10 distinctions or 300 degrees, that makes them very smart but sometimes they are very unwise.
“It’s a difference and so we need to really appreciate these old people, speak with them so that they can pass some of their wisdom onto us as to how we cope with life because they had to cope with life even more challenging than we have today. And yet they were able to do it somehow, without the kind of academic fulfillment or understanding that most of us have today…I think we need to be more cognizant of that and see how much we can learn from them and see if we can acquire some of their wisdom.”
Her words brought to mind the famous quotation of John Salisbury…
"We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours."
