Tuesday 6th March

They just push you aside as if you are of no consequence, which in a way I can understand. The young are after all our future, they will be around far longer than we will, and really when you think about it we oldies have made an awful mess of things.  What have we bequeathed them; a broken planet by all accounts.  In our headlong rush for material wealth we have squandered not only our own but our children’s inheritance too.  At our school there used to be a bronze plaque with a relief of poppies and crosses, and a short list of names of the fallen in two world wars, presumably former pupils of the school.  And at the bottom were the words “To you we pass the burning torch, be it yours to hold up high.”  We used to laugh and say, “Yes, or it will burn your hair you idiot !!”  We didn’t realise what it meant, not only the torch of learning, but passing on the torch of civilization too.  Only, we didn’t really do much to sustain the flames in our period of holding it, and now we pass on a spluttering burnt out apology of a world.  Let us hope that the younger generation with their fairly well instilled ideas of fairness and anti-racism and anti-sexism will do a better job.

It is just that sometimes I look at them on the tube, with their smart suits and the girls all made up and in high heels and designer bags and with their easy manner and confidence and I cannot help noticing that one of the main lessons we have passed onto them is also selfishness, in fact it seems ingrained in so many, with their sharp faces and beaky pushy noses, and self assured ways.  No room for modesty, for diffidence, for being unsure of oneself.  They all seem to be following the American model of self-belief and self-fulfillment above all else.  Well, let us just hope that when they have achieved all their goals they come to realise that it is by sharing ones experiences, especially of what it is to be human – that wisdom is truly found.   Here endeth today’s lesson.