Respect: Do You?

About one week ago we all went up to Dekatur to serve WW2 veterans a dinner. When we got there you could see the town was pretty small and almost deserted. The senior citizens center was a tiny building on main street that needed to be updated. The only thing that looked new was the huge bus that pulled up to let off the seniors. So we put on our smiley faces, helped them inside and started to serve them dinner. I sat next to a former Army drill instructor who also went into field artillery. Of course he was hard of hearing so whenever I asked him questions or expressed my own views on war related topics just about everyone else in the building could hear me. But I tried to be encouraging and asked lots of questions; and though I could only understand half of what he said it was a very interesting experience. He really laughed when I said that I had heard that drill instructors yell a lot, and that drill instructors “hate the recruits”. He was apparently chosen as a drill instructor right out of boot camp which was interesting. I asked him what advice he would give to a soldier who was about to be deployed to Iraq, and he said to learn the language. I surprised myself by being very inquisitive and asking lots of questions, but I’m not as brave as mom and I didn’t muster up the courage to ask him about his missing finger.
Many times while walking through a nursing home I am just taken over by this feeling that I should be here; working with these people. It’s easy for me, a romantic with a wonderful imagination, to see a senior and just envision what kind of patriotic young soldier he was… with so many stories and so much wisdom hid behind that inexpressive, worn face. We treat them like little children, placing them under the care of crabby nurses and then only visiting them every once in a while to sit with them and make small talk about nothing. If anything we should caring for them, learning from them… how can America’s youth treat these living, breathing history stories as unimportant, disgusting people? If your grandpa can talk, and if you are willing to listen, then you will be surprised at the insight and wisdom that will shine forth. Behind those faces, worn by years of age and the SAD (Standard American Diet), are hurting, lonely hearts and minds just waiting to be invited to share the lessons they have learned.
How many of us have the ability to actually see people as they are? We often base our first impressions of them on their looks. With elderly people, however, appearances are nothing. What makes a senior is his or her character, which is so seldom let through this mask of debilitating age that we do not see character at all; thus, in our minds, they are “old people” and nothing more.
You know what I would just love to see, and what would really touch me? A young man, maybe High School age, popular, athletic and accomplished, reach out to help an elderly person. To leave behind who he is at school and at home, to sit and become a youth, eager to hear the wisdom and stories from a man or woman so much wiser than him. That would be a very encouraging sight to see.

God bless our veterans.