How to grow old gracelessly part 2

The last time we spoke, I mentioned that I would give you the good points of aging.  The first of which is knowledge.  I didn’t get these fine wrinkles and gray hairs (although dyed) for nothing.  Knowledge is a valuable commodity in this day and age.  But…you think there must be a catch.  Well, you are right.  We know a lot but just like Cassandra of old Greek mythology, no one believes us. 

So we sit there secure in our “been there, done that”, bubble as our grown children scoff at our suggestions and advice.  So it’s best to just keep our mouths closed.  They will just have to learn for themselves.  Guess that is the way of the world.  Live and learn.  

And speaking of Greek mythology, there are all sorts of grown children that didn’t listen to their older and much wiser parents. One is the story of Icarus. When his father made him some wings he warned him not to fly too close to the sun.  Did he listen?  Of course not, he flew too close to the sun and the wax melted his wings and he fell to the earth.  While I am pretty handy with a glue gun, I’m not about to start working on wings for my children.  If they want to fly they will have to do it with a credit card and a 747.

To be honest, I didn’t listen to my mother either.  I was a rebel with a cause.  You see, being an American woman of Greek descent she had her ingrained method for raising her children. 

My mother was born in America of Greek immigrant parents…hence the term American of Greek descent.  Why do I use that term instead of Greek-American?  I told you I would get back to that.  She was born in America.  She never saw Greece although she could speak and write fluently. Family genetics just don’t automatically make someone actually from Greece.  I also don’t get why people want to use the term African-American, when they are, in reality, Americans of African descent.  All the hyphenated term does is separate people.  Americans are American.  Simple as that!  Guess that isn’t politically correct.  All politics aside you will notice I do include myself as an American of Greek descent.

But I digress.  My mother, although an American of Greek descent believed in the antiquated patriarchal ways of old Greece.  She loved her boys, (they would remain boys even into their 50’s.) and girls were just supposed to get married and have babies. Odd, especially when she was definitely the one who wore the pants in our family!  As she grew older, she grew wiser and changed a bit, although she would never lose her overly moral, ethical, and sexist principles.  

My dad, on the other hand, came from a Greek immigrant family who tossed aside the attitudes and mores of the old country. My mother’s family hated my dad and felt he and his family were not proper Greeks.  Although they had wealth, they didn’t have the ethics true Greeks admired. Much to her families chagrin, my mother married him anyway. She and I weren’t so different after all. 

So I always went to dad for advice and encouragement.  He would never, however, go against my mother openly. He would simply suggest I do what I want and she would get over it.  He was a great cheerleader as long as the other team didn’t know he was cheering.

I’m a baby boomer and if you are too, you know what the 60’s and 70’s were like.  I guess I was a handful.  And that is where the knowledge came from.  I was full of piss and vinegar as the country folk label it.  But youth does not last forever and one day you go to sleep like Rip Van Winkle and wake up older.  And wiser is just no consolation. 

Ah, the infinite wisdom of the old folk…to be continued.  They are the Cassandra's of their day.  Wisdom is no substitute for memory.  Sorry to say folks, that is the first thing to go.