Respect Your Elders

Perhaps nowadays, many people view the old adage “respect your elders” as an antiquated ordinariness. Perhaps the reason is because young folk today don’t necessarily rely on their parents’ advice. Moreover, taking advice from senior citizens may no longer be the norm either, in that so much pertinent information is readily available via the internet.

However, taking into account the sophistication and frequencies of crimes committed by the elderly (i.e., fraud, pedophilia, assaults, homicides, etc.), they may not be complementing the old adage so well. Nonetheless, respecting one’s elders is just as much a part of today’s world cultures as it was thousands of years ago, and according to some scientific studies, the practice even exists during the development stages of animals.

Religion also heavily favors the adage, wherein one Bible passage, “Leviticus 19:32,” reads, “You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.”

All things considered, there are those of us who live by the old adage while employing good judgement and those of us who believe it’s merely an archaic reference that has lost its sentimental value. Personally, I’d rather stick with the former in that the elderly deserve to be respected to the fullest extent permitted.