I don’t remember crossing the line, I’m sure it was a slow accumulation of things beginning with reading glasses and hairs turning gray.
Now I am a grandfather, older and wiser; but the wisdom that comes with age seems to be discounted by occasional forgetfulness. No one really cares about what I have seen, done, or learned, because now I am old.
As a young man, I remember hearing firsthand the observations of old men, observations that sounded like complaints about the growing disrespect and lack of morality displayed by my younger generation.
I thought, come on, it’s not all that! But in my heart I suspected they could be right. Now we all know they were. Not wanting to sound like the crotchety old men I didn’t want to hear, I struggle to wait patiently for the day my son will ask for advice, advice I know he needs badly right now.
I don’t know the proper procedure (I had no dad to advise me), but I’m holding some real pearls of wisdom for him. I don’t want to offer them up unsolicited because that guidance is never welcomed.
I hope when the day comes that he does ask, I can remember these pearls of wisdom, or at least remember where I wrote them down.