hi srinivasan,
welcome to the forum.
i am 61, and so do qualify your criterion thanks to the number of years spent on this planet. i do not however claim to any wisdom, but would definitely love to see the wisdom of those who possesses the same, in sufficient quantities, and do wish to share it among us.
There are 3 distinct characterestics that you have assigned to those over 60.
The first, as I see it, is maturity. I do not know, if maturity and age necessarily go together. I have relatives in the 70s and 80s, whom, I personally feel, the concept of maturity has passed them by. On the other hand I have seen folks in their 20s, 30s, even in this forum and outside of it, showing a remarkable capacity to look at life’s challenges, weigh the consequences of the alternatives, and be able to select without emotion, what is best under the circumstances.
i have been a participant here for a few years, and whatever i have written, is more defined by my life experiences. what i have found, is that none of my currently held values, are the same as what i held a few years ago. i find myself changing, with exposure to new ideas, and beaten up more by the school of hard knocks, from which i never seem to have any prospect of graduation..
I think the same goes to anyone over 60 here. All of us are products of our upbringings and even more, of our lifetime experiences, particularly those that go dead against, what we have been brought up as cardinal values. To sum up on this, what I feel, is good for the Brahmins, tambrams in particular, is something, some others may feel, is exactly contrary to their welfare. It is the beauty of the forum, that we all participate, and leave it to the public, to sift the wheat from the chaff, and take what is good for them.
What I want to say, is that the model here is not one of elders, holding an audience to rapt attention with their discourses, which is eagerly lapped up by an ignorant and eager youngster. I have found, many a youngster, not only smarter, but better read and more erudite on our traditions than yours truly. Even more I appreciate, their attempt to question some of our nasty past, and in the process evolve into the future Hinduism, bereft of the worst horrors incited by Brahmin lead manu needhis.
In many, re youngster, the problems are those perceived by the elders. I think, it is the gerontocracy, that has calcified itself at some particular age, and yearn for the ‘simpler values’ of those times, and wish to restore ‘order and respect’. One only has to turn the pages to see the rebellion in our own childhood, which we have conveniently forgotten, with the onset of creeky bones and blood sugar.
Thank you.
