The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth. Edmund Burke

Old people are quick to complain about the millennials but I want to take a moment to defend them.
I think they are smarter than we were, but their ideas often confront our established views.
They are definitely kinder that we were, and less conservative in their values.
While they do things differently to us in their youth, I do think they are the great hope in reversing the damage we've done.
It's no accident that the #MeToo movement has been supported by the young, while the old fight it.
It's no accident the LBGTQI rights are moving forward with a speed like never before.
It's no accident the voices for change seem to get louder and louder as the young jump on board the cause and actively spread the views.

I have spoken before how therapeutic I find music (and dancing) and so I headed to Kygo on Friday, but solo as none of my friends were keen. I found my spot on the floor and merrily danced away. At one point, a tall guy pushed his way in front of me. While we'd not spoken all night, the young (little) guy who had danced next to me the whole time, looked at me concerned and gestured 'do you want me to say something?'. I smiled no, and pushed my way back to my spot, assuming the little guy might get beaten up by the older 'roid-addled meathead, but a little bespectacled old lady would not.

I know I am old, and I know that I don't fit in at these concerts, but I love the music and I've since discovered there is always someone who will dance with me or talk to me. I know they see me as a strange old lady but the fact that they make me feel comfortable is kind. A kindness I may not have offered in MY youth.




If you have seen that hideous tirade on the RyanAir flight, it is an old man creating the racist scene, and when the attendant seems out of his depth, it is the young man in the seat behind them that stands up and intervenes. I presume from the voice that the person filming is also quite young. These people didn't need to get involved, it wasn't their concern, but they chose to defend the woman and right a wrong.

As I sit at dinners and listen to conservative views criticising the foibles of the young, I have to wonder how I ever got to be so old. Why do we stop evolving and stagnate as we age? There is an Irish proverb, 'Praise youth and it will prosper'. Perhaps we need to focus on what they do better than us, instead of what they do differently? Maybe our way was not the right way in the first place?

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

J.K Rowling

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