Wrinkles Of The Wise

Wrinkles of the wise.  What is this you might ask?  It's one of our greatest, most under-appreciated natural resources.  It's our own elderly loved ones, friends, and associates that have vast amounts of knowledge, memories, and history- if we'd only ask for it. Our elderly, like old buildings lovingly taken care of, are our history, and if ignored, our own past could be lost forever.

Years ago, my grandmother often told me stories of being on wagons and riding long distances to get to places, and being the typical teenager, that I was at that time, I think "snooze ville" here, and I never paid attention.  Gone now are my chances to learn, not only of past history, but my families history as well, for my grandmother has long since passed on.  Now I live with regret, a rich history has been lost, slipping through my fingers like sand.

I have grown up since then but there is nothing that makes me feel better about the empty places inside me, the places where my family heritage is a blank, where tidbits, that I could have learned -are now gone forever.  I do know I am distantly related to Robert E. Lee, that I am of Cherokee, German and Spanish decent, but this is just enough to just make me wish I knew more, and still the regret lingers on.

I often look at those pictures of the elderly -in black and white photos-and I wonder what knowledge do they have to impart to others?  And I look at my own life.  Will I have all the answers that my daughter will wonder about -concerning family- someday?  Will she know all that she can about family history now that so many of our loved ones have passed on?  No, sadly I don't think she will.  Is this something that could have been fixed?  Yes and no.

So this thinking has brought me to these conclusions; yes I should have listened to my grandmother more, yes I should have asked more questions, but did I?  No.  Would I have if I could turn back time?  Being the young teenager that I was then-at 14 years of age-probably not.  But I can do this, I can tell my daughter this, that the "Wrinkles Of The Wise" hold vast amounts of knowledge, and that being said we should always listen to our elders.  They are our past, our present and very importantly, they are -through history and lessons on life-our very future.