Level Three. Age.
Level Three – Age.
By Michelle Lloyd.
Dillon was little, much more little in size and younger than R V, his brother. R V felt this was about as much that needed to be thought about the subject of age. Age was one of those odd concepts because when you brought it up, it could gain some very strange responses indeed.
There were many examples that did perplex R V and one of these was when his Dad was caught up with the subject. When age was mentioned to him, it would more often than not bring up one of his quite long stories about his childhood experiences. Age to Dad would mean that he would be reminded of what he used to love to do or how he used to think about his feelings. This R V, could not understand. To R V, it was the now that was important.
Dillon did not seem bothered by age at all. As long as his needs were met, he was clean, fed and played with, then he was happy. It was funny R V thought that Dad had such a predictable response to age, each time it was the same. His Mum did not like to talk about the subject and he could not understand that either. Age. It was something they all had in their lives and according to his teacher at school, they all had to do it. Why did it mean so much to some and hardly anything to others?
On an afternoon out R V decided to broach the subject of age with his parents. He went up to them and told them that at his age how should he be feeling about life? That was a very strange question his parents both said to him. R V stated that when he talked about age they both seemed to have quite different responses to it and so he wanted to know how he should feel about it.
After a brief gap in conversation whereupon both R V’s Mum and Dad looked thoughtful and surprised respectively, came the answer that no one could tell him how to feel about it and that age was a privilege to experience. R V asked if that was why his Dad thought so much about his childhood when the subject was brought up and if that meant he was not happy about it now? Again, there was a lull in the conversation and finally R V’s Mum and Dad both agreed that maybe they had not given him the most appropriate impression of age.
It was decided in the family that age was to be treated like a gift. Every age had its own experiences, life lessons to learn from and memories to cherish. Each one of them should embrace age as the buddy that it was and acknowledge their own individual idea of what it could mean to how happy they could be and what significance it had for them.