Gem from an elder..

Today at my job I had the blessed opportunity to sit down with a 92 year old woman (very healthy too) for a couple of minutes. I love asking the elders for wisdom and insight.

I asked the lady (who was a Ghanian immigrant who's been in amerika for 53 years) what she thought about todays world and why it was how it was.

Her response was that "men have stopped being men, and women, being women." Basically she said that when people stopped keeping up with their "gender roles" the dynamics in their children changed and there was a serious imbalance in character. She also said (lol) women stopped cooking from scratch so people are poisoned from birth by similar and processed foods.

Then I asked her how we fix amerika.

She told me that "balance is part of life, if something starts wrong, it will end just as wrong". She started talking about amerika being a stolen country and saying that the spirits of those murdered out of greed will not allow for positive energy to sweep amerika.

lastly i asked her where we would be in 20 years.

she said "i'll probably be dead but everybody else will be in the land of their origin.."




Just thought I'd share..
peace

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


Thats awesome. I think many people from my generation have lost the concept of respecting their elders. They really have alot to teach if we just listen. I know whenever I have issues it only makes sense to ask someone thats been through it.

Um I guess you could say I am lucky. As far as the gender roles. Do not mean to offend anyone but being what I consider "old school", I work and my girl enjoys keeping the house, cooking, and raising the kiddo. Unfortunetly this is a hard life to have for many with the current economy.

Thank you for sharing.

As "wise" as that is, there are plenty of countries in the world where "men are men and women are women" where life is not so happy and grand. I would argue that men's need for manliness and masculinity and "machismo" has resulted in war, poverty, humiliation, degradation, and sadness for billions of people. When men do not treat their own wives, their own families, with equality and dignity, then what's to say they are going to do that to anyone else? When men are so concerned with appearing "straight" that they beat people up for perceived "gayness", why is that somehow a great world?

Anyways, people have various opinions on this subject but in my opinion, this old lady is not so much wise as she is fundamentalist and traditionalist. The past extends much further back than 1950 and traditionally, life has not been a happy thing and war and disease have raged, all when "men were men and women were women."

Originally posted by spacekc929
I would argue that men's need for manliness and masculinity and "machismo" has resulted in war, poverty, humiliation, degradation, and sadness for billions of people.

I would not say that im after manliness. As much as I think its very important for the child to have the nurturing care of their mother rather then a daycare or babysitter. I suppose thats alittle off from the elder ladies comment.

I take pride in providing. I absolutely do not treat her like a lesser. Those aspects obviously did need to, and are changing.

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine
Her response was that "men have stopped being men, and women, being women."
She also said women stopped cooking from scratch so people are poisoned from birth by similar and processed foods.

So pretty much the ordinary conventional view of things then.
I'd say 95 percent of ATS members have said such things on here from time to time.

idk after mid 30s doesn't brain function steadily(slowly) decrease over time, unless the person meditates

Originally posted by spacekc929
As "wise" as that is, there are plenty of countries in the world where "men are men and women are women" where life is not so happy and grand. I would argue that men's need for manliness and masculinity and "machismo" has resulted in war, poverty, humiliation, degradation, and sadness for billions of people. When men do not treat their own wives, their own families, with equality and dignity, then what's to say they are going to do that to anyone else? When men are so concerned with appearing "straight" that they beat people up for perceived "gayness", why is that somehow a great world?

Anyways, people have various opinions on this subject but in my opinion, this old lady is not so much wise as she is fundamentalist and traditionalist. The past extends much further back than 1950 and traditionally, life has not been a happy thing and war and disease have raged, all when "men were men and women were women."

The people of old would tell you that men are supposed to be overflowing with testosterone but they have a female companion to balance them. and who said anything about beating up gays??

if you don't mind, what is your age range?

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


Gotta love oldies - they do not put up with all that other people do.

They cut right through all the falseness.

If more people were into their olds, they might learn a lot.

i disagree with most opeople about this. after a certain age a person's credibility is lost. and i guess it isn't every person. Some people retain a sharp mind into old age. but brain functions steadily decrease from mid 30s. There is some evidence indicating that meditation prevents this and increases intelligence. Most old people I meet are not in the same reality as i'm in.

Originally posted by biggmoneyme
i disagree with most opeople about this. after a certain age a person's credibility is lost. and i guess it isn't every person. Some people retain a sharp mind into old age. but brain functions steadily decrease from mid 30s. There is some evidence indicating that meditation prevents this and increases intelligence. Most old people I meet are not in the same reality as i'm in.

You young whipper-snappers need to take a time out.

Either that or it's a spankin'!

Too bad it's illegal to tan the hide these days because THAT'S what is really wrong with Western Society.

As much as I'd like to say "wow... what a wise woman", I can't ignore the fact that the world has never really been very peaceful or "balanced" to begin with. We've always had inequality, wars, racism, sexism, abuse, people with psychological problems, hunger, disease, unhappiness, and the list goes on and on. The world is no longer what this woman knows, but that doesn't make it worse than what her world was like when she was growing up. It's different now than it was 50 years ago, and 50 years ago the world was different than what it was a century earlier.

Some things got much better, some things worse and some things didn't change at all. In my opinion -depending on what you prefer- women have it much better these days. They have more choices. If they want a traditional guy as they were 50 years ago and vice versa, she can find that guy and have a traditional marriage. If she wants to wait for marriage until she is 35 - 40 years old, she can do that too without suffering too many social repercussions. Divorce from that abusive A$%*&# she married? No problem! With new freedom comes change for better and worse. We'll just have to adjust to the new environment.

P.S. That bit about America being a stolen country,..... you'll have a very hard time finding a country in this world that hasn't been stolen from one group or another at some point of it's existence. Borders change all the time, and people migrate, take over and re-educate entire cultures.

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine
Today at my job I had the blessed opportunity to sit down with a 92 year old woman (very healthy too) for a couple of minutes. I love asking the elders for wisdom and insight.

What a coincidence, because my mother-in-law is 92 and I asked her for wisdom and insight as well. She said "there are fragments of bacon in my belly button, and Timmy forgot to wash the donuts from behind his ears next year, so very cold." I'm sure it's some kind of code, but thus far I haven't been able to decipher it.

reply to post by My.mind.is.mine


Well I hope pretty much every modern country is prepared to reap the ghost of those slain in their names...

Americas crimes in history are no greater than most countries, Id go as far to say that even now the great crimes the US commit do not out weight those of the other Super powers in history.

Originally posted by spacekc929
The past extends much further back than 1950 and traditionally, life has not been a happy thing and war and disease have raged, all when "men were men and women were women."

And yet it wages even today when men are women and women are men and kids have zero respect for their elders. Prices are based on 2 incomes, jobs are nonexistent, schools are failing because they're too busy educating people who don't speak the language, every day there's a story of some coach or teacher raping kids. I'll take her "fundamentalist" world any day of the week!

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine
Today at my job I had the blessed opportunity to sit down with a 92 year old woman (very healthy too) for a couple of minutes. I love asking the elders for wisdom and insight.

I asked the lady (who was a Ghanian immigrant who's been in amerika for 53 years) what she thought about todays world and why it was how it was.

Her response was that "men have stopped being men, and women, being women." Basically she said that when people stopped keeping up with their "gender roles" the dynamics in their children changed and there was a serious imbalance in character. She also said (lol) women stopped cooking from scratch so people are poisoned from birth by similar and processed foods.

Then I asked her how we fix amerika.

She told me that "balance is part of life, if something starts wrong, it will end just as wrong". She started talking about amerika being a stolen country and saying that the spirits of those murdered out of greed will not allow for positive energy to sweep amerika.

lastly i asked her where we would be in 20 years.

she said "i'll probably be dead but everybody else will be in the land of their origin.."




Just thought I'd share..
peace

Thank you for sharing. So in other words she said what the rest of society is too politically correct to say or admit.