Traveling Show

senior1938voice:

Blogging is something new to me.  Coming on this scene just shortly before my seventy-fourth birthday has been interesting if not very rewarding.  Woke up this morning thinking;

• Are seniors’ ignored on-line?
• Where are they?
• Is there any dialogue exchange between on-line youngsters and seniors?
• Raise or suggest the issues and see—
  
  

Five questions but you may submit your own…

1. Why have you made the f___ word paramount in all that you say and communicate in your postings?
   
   

   1. I remember when we struggled against the n____ word. There has been progress in exposing it for the murderous viciousness behind that one word.
      
      

2. Have you asked either of your grandparents, if they are still alive, if they were ever sexually abused in any form or fashion?
   
   

   1. To tell the truth, I was, and will not give details unless asked.
      
      

3. What are your thoughts, when I say; “I see a world obsessed with the dividing of people by CCRR (Color, Class, Race, Religion)?”
   
   

   1. To this we can now add gender choice, political allegiances, etc.
      
      

4. Ask your grandparents or a senior you feel close to, what most stimulated them in areas of faith, entertainment, girls, boys, life at home or in their neighborhoods?
   
   

   1. My first thought to this, is my passion to get beyond the neighborhood by means of walking, scooter, street skates, bicycle, buses, trains, and a car when someone who owned one would take me along for a ride anywhere.
      
      

5. Did they appreciate going to school?
   
   

   1. From kindergarten to my first semester of my senior high years— I loved school. And then………

• What value is it, if when you reach your senior years, the young, and especially the Now On-Line Generation is not interested in chatting or even acknowledging we even exist on-line? What a brain drain.
  

• Lady Ga Ga, the Madonna replacement is the dazzle of so many; why?
  

• It seems it’s TVs on, Nintendo thumbs at work, cellphones in every pocket regardless of age, what happened to:
  

  • peddle cars

  • street, roller, or ice skates

  • bicycle distant all day until night fall travel

  • kids off on a neighborhood visit to the nearest river or lake

What I’m saying here— where is the communication, the link between now – then.

• Do you not know we have seen the justification for war increase to justification for hosting more than one war at a time?
  

• Yes! We know sex is great— but it is not everything.
  

• So many young suffer from adverse mental and physical conditions—

  • why can’t we put a stop to this, now, today, right now!

We’ve seen the adverse puppet show of local, national, and worldwide leaders, doing the same old shell came of serving themselves— not the people.

Well! Guess I’ve said enough for today— we seniors’ do get tired of wasting our time, especially when there are no eager ears listening, or mouths asking?

Five questions?

Any answers?

Any dialogue?

I propose a tag Senior Voices— the intent is to begin a dialogue betweenseniors and on-line youngsters.  We’ve been there, done and seen that - you are here, doing that— let’s collaborate!

…/NM1938

This is a response from a “youngster” who thinks it is worthwhile;

Seniors on the Internet (My Answers to Your Bullet Points)

• I have not seen enough seniors on the Internet to tell.  Particularly on Tumblr, users over thirty are in the minority.
• Seniors are present on Facebook.  They also crop up in specific-topic forums.  Even those disinclined to use the Internet sometimes go to it to share information on an interest, especially if it is obscure enough to keep them from finding like-minded people near them.
• There probably is on specific topics.  Unless they have a reason to come together, no.
• I am not sure what this meant.

Your Questions

1) Not all of us do.  Plenty of teens and young adults want to move through this world without hurting people.  We stay away from the language of oppression.

2) I never have.  I would not feel comfortable asking my living grandparents.  I never knew the grandfather closest to me ended WWII with depression and PTSD until years after he died.

3) I feel happy that people are comfortable admitting who and what they are.  I am glad every time I see that get safer.  It makes for a more humane world.  I see the issue of political leanings separately.  It is good that people say what they think, but we have forgotten how to compromise.  That scares me.  I am nineteen.  I probably have decades to live under a government so polarized it cannot pass a budget.  I wonder what will become of my generation and our children in the U.S.

4) Yes, I treasure my grandparents’ stories and the ones passed down to them from past generations.  These narratives give me a sense of who I am, explain my upbringing, and comfort me in the face of adversity.  My people survived the Atlantic crossing on sailing ships, made interracial marriage work in a slave society, preserved the family farm through the Dust Bowl, helped found a university in rural Appalachia, and tried to keep disabled kin out of institutions in the early twentieth century.  If they could survive what they did, there is no excuse for me to do anything but excel.

5) A couple did.  They were book smart.  One of my grandfathers, a dyslexic genius, hated it.  He only figured out why it was so hard when I got diagnosed.  He realized there was a name for the problem he had.  He did not live to see research that suggests the same neurological wiring that wrecked havoc on his grades also helped make him a bulldozer whisperer.  I wish he had.  He would have liked that.

I think we are willing to admit you exist.  We just use different parts of the Internet.

Popular culture confuses me, too.  I know people who are literate in it and enjoy it, though.  The interesting thing about the Internet is the rise of subcultures.  People who dislike popculture have other options.

I think greater openness about sex creates the perception that everyone is always having it.  Some people are.  Others are not.  Within the group that have sex, the details vary as they always have.  I doubt much has changed since birth control became fairly available.

People have always had illnesses, ailments, injuries, and disabilities.  It is desirable to fix some of these things.  It will be done as medical practitioners continue to learn about the human body.  Other things, like many disabilities, should be left alone.  Not everyone wants to be changed.  Humanity benefits from diversity.  The perception of the rise of things like autism is increased labeling.  Adults called Dad a quirky, awkward kid who missed sarcasm and memorized train schedules.  They called me autistic.  The only substantive change is that my obsessions are less stereotypical.  Our lives are not cause for alarm.

I like your proposal. Inter-generational dialogue could be a great thing.  Keep it up!