And So It Goes

The one thing we must never do is be critical of something that someone else feels is important. We have all done it, as teenagers we relentlessly criticized our parents' (or grandparents') choice of music, of fashion, of things that they once cared about passionately and that had meant something to them so long ago. Times change, of course, but those things that gave them special memories never did. Sometimes I look back in shame at the haughty attitudes we all had towards them- how we all knew better, how much our tastes had refined since those bygone days. The thing to do, the adult thing, is to try and find some positive thing in that which means so much to them. It may seem trivial (though I'm beginning to doubt that anything that happens to us is), but there may be a larger lesson here. If we ignore our biases and try to understand why these things meant so much to them, we may truly begin to grow as people. There may come a time when the small, insignificant, forgotten things that mean so much to us will have to be explained as well, will have to be understood by another. As we have done unto others, so shall be done to the best of us. And so it goes . . .