Age in Asia

While walking through Chinatown yesterday, I noticed something that I had observed in the past but not truly thought about. It was the number of elderly people walking in the streets and sitting in the dessert cafes. There was something about them that struck me – some were walking slowly with a younger person holding their arm; others were chatting and laughing with other individuals in the cafes sipping warm tea. Even though many of them seemed physically frail, they seemed to glow with a sense of serenity.

That is when I thought about elderly individuals in general. I don’t always see the same kind of glow among the other ‘senior citizens’ in the city. When I visited a regular nursing home, the looks on those individuals’ faces were not the same. It didn’t reflect peace or serenity, but rather a sense of slow and unwanted suffering. I realized that the difference is cultural, and as many of us are already aware, the West doesn’t treat and regard the elderly in the same way that Asian or Eastern cultures do. Instead of learning from their wisdom and taking care of them, some are treated as worthless. Many eastern countries are starting to follow the same pattern. In countries such as India, where parents and elderly were revered, I am starting to see the same pattern emerging.

For many of us living in the West, it is not too long from now that we could be at that age where we may not be able to take care of ourselves. I hope we won’t be discarded or forgotten by the capitalist youth obsessed society but rather valued for our knowledge, experience, and wisdom.