The Gifts Of Age: Part 2
[This is the second part of a two-part post co-authored at my invitation with Deb Call and Dan Oestreich. Read Part 1]
Whatever we believe to be our gifts of age, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that they derive from experience. This is true not only for the gifts mentioned in Part I — freedom from making judgments, inner confidence, acceptance, and fruition — but for so many others unmentioned so far, such as wisdom, peace of mind, continued commitment to a purpose, or enjoying the fruits of former accomplishments. It also seems impossible to conclude that these gifts are given to all. There are many who have them in great measure, and who revel in them and use them wisely, but there are also many cranky and unhappy old men and women who seem not to have them at all. If the gifts are truly gifts of age, then it is probably more accurate to say, rather than that the gifts are not given to all, that all are not able to receive them.
Does Experience Matter?
This past weekend a political pundit (can’t recall which one) pointed out that candidates often lose when they hang their election hopes on long experience. Nixon lost to Kennedy. Carter lost to Reagan. Hillary Clinton lost to Obama, and John McCain’s campaign appears to be done for.
The quantity of a person’s experience isn’t enough to grant authority to his or her thoughts or actions. This lesson was driven home to me more years ago than I care to admit, when I was a novice teacher in a public high school. One veteran teacher was fond of dueling on the ground of his experience whenever he was in a disagreement about school policy or teaching methods. His strong thrust in such arguments was, “Based on my twenty-five years of experience…”
