Patience, Selflessness, and older people stuff.

TiredThinker September 13, 2020 at 01:10 1475 views 5 comments

What about patience, putting others ahead of ourselves, and other qualities often associated with being mature can we really attribute to being above a certain age? As we get older our mind slows down, our hand/eye coordination decreases, or eyesight can get quite bad. Is it patience we have or simply a first hand account of a declining circumstances that makes us simply hope others will offer us all possible considerations because we are selfish at the end of the day. And put others ahead of ourselves even in mortal situations because we can have a legacy if we can't improve our existence?

Do you imagine we are only truly honest and considerate of all others when there is nothing the world can take from us? Maybe even a limit to what we can gain?

Comments (5)

Gus Lamarch September 13, 2020 at 23:45 #451936 0 likes

You're confusing weakness with virtue, and we have already done that - with Christianity -.

TiredThinker September 14, 2020 at 02:42 #451966 0 likes

I am basically asking if we gain any real virtues with age that aren't the direct result of our own decline?

Philosophim September 14, 2020 at 03:17 #451974 0 likes

I'm wondering what your encounters with older people are like. =) Older people are just like everyone else, except they've had more experience in the world. Some people use this experience to become better people. Some use it to become worse. Some just never change.

jgill September 14, 2020 at 19:14 #452133 0 likes

Quoting TiredThinker

I am basically asking if we gain any real virtues with age that aren't the direct result of our own decline?

In my 8+ decades I have seen and experienced much, and that accumulated history perhaps gives me a different if not better perspective on current events. I have become more tolerant and far less impulsive.

And since Frank Apisa was excommunicated from the forum I feel somewhat alone. That's not bad really, since much of my avocational career as a rock climber was going solo. :cool:

god must be atheist September 14, 2020 at 22:22 #452191 0 likes

Quoting TiredThinker

I am basically asking if we gain any real virtues with age that aren't the direct result of our own decline?

In our youth, we wanted to hurry up in case we were late for it. (Reference: Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A.Milne, in which Tigger and Roo climb up a tall tree and forget how to come down.)

In our old age we have enough experience to bury that impatience by knowing that nothing hardly ever moves, or changes, and the more things change, the more they remain the same. (Reference: Led Zeppelin, "The Song Remains The Same".)

And thirdly, by my age people realize that a virtue is a term of misconception in and by itself; it means exteme moral behaviour, which we know is a farce (a real one, but still a farce) that society forces down the throat of each of its members. Morallity is real, but it's not virtuous... it's just a social coercion to do what the majority or what the most powerful want us to do.