Bidin~Time
montani semper liberi
- Joined
- May 7, 2002
- Posts
- 19,620
Human nature is pretty predictable. It's not terribly difficult to predict the outcome of any given scenario if you take the time to observe. That's why us old people can sometime come off as being so annoyingly, exacerbatingly, cock sure of our stances and opinions on any given subject where human nature is concerned. Life is a never ending learning process, a process that repeats, and has repeated, since time began.
My sister has taught high school for over 25 yrs. Not long ago she was telling me about some drama amongst the students and as she ended the tale, she added, "The stories are always the same, always end the same, only the players have changed. If the kids had known to ask, I could have told them exactly how that was going to play out, but they didn't know to ask, wouldn't have listened anyway, and yet, would have been amazed at my powers of prophesy."
I got to thinking about that, and I knew she was correct. Sometimes I just have to take a deep breath, and remind myself that I, or someone I knew did this or that, then someone else later on did the same thing, repeating over and over through the years with results so similar, they may as well have been the same scene in a 'Groundhog Day'-like movie; we survived, they survived (usually) and life went on.
I have to keep reminding myself that people 20 and 30 yrs my junior, have not yet seen those scenarios play out dozens of time. They will learn, if they live through it all, and with any luck, not repeat the painful lessons, and use them to go on to many other positive lessons. I live in hope that, at some point, they will also learn to ask for advice and listen to the advice given. That advice may not always be what they want to hear, but there's a lifetime of reasons behind the advice given.
My sister has taught high school for over 25 yrs. Not long ago she was telling me about some drama amongst the students and as she ended the tale, she added, "The stories are always the same, always end the same, only the players have changed. If the kids had known to ask, I could have told them exactly how that was going to play out, but they didn't know to ask, wouldn't have listened anyway, and yet, would have been amazed at my powers of prophesy."
I got to thinking about that, and I knew she was correct. Sometimes I just have to take a deep breath, and remind myself that I, or someone I knew did this or that, then someone else later on did the same thing, repeating over and over through the years with results so similar, they may as well have been the same scene in a 'Groundhog Day'-like movie; we survived, they survived (usually) and life went on.
I have to keep reminding myself that people 20 and 30 yrs my junior, have not yet seen those scenarios play out dozens of time. They will learn, if they live through it all, and with any luck, not repeat the painful lessons, and use them to go on to many other positive lessons. I live in hope that, at some point, they will also learn to ask for advice and listen to the advice given. That advice may not always be what they want to hear, but there's a lifetime of reasons behind the advice given.
