Level Three. Ageing.

Level Three. Ageing.

By Michelle Lloyd.

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 concept RV could not understand. It was to RV, the now that was important.

Dillon, RV’s young sibling, 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 RV thought that Dad had such a predictable response to age, and 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 common and it 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 and he remembered that it had been quite an experience…

RV went up to the parents and asked them, at his age how should he be feeling about life?  That was a very strange question, his parents both said to him. RV explained 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 RV’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. RV 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 as happy about it now? Again, there was a lull in the conversation and finally RV’s Mum and Dad both agreed that maybe they had not given him the most appropriate or unified 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 treasure that it was and acknowledge their own individual idea of what it could mean. As for how fulfilled they could be and what significance it had for them, there could only ever be their own unique response.