Touched with time they are effortlessly beautiful. The purest forms of perfect imperfection. Silence has become their best friend and their biggest enemy. Having lived through decades of life's highs and lows they are more often than not left alone with their own thoughts. The gatekeepers of our history, in a world that is constantly dying to be heard, we time and time again let them fall silent long before their rightful time.
Through World Wars, Depressions, three Feminist Waves, movements upon movements; they've been their through it all. Whether it be as innocent bystanders or active participants in framing our present day states.
The elderly are a generation that is too often forgotten. In many cultures they are held at the highest prestige, where here in the Western World we subject them to eye rolls, nods of the head, and empty remarks lacking any and all question.
I have learned some of my most valuable life lessons through my work with the elderly community. It is at first saddening to see their apprehension towards communication; especially with a 20 something such as myself. Though given the right settings, I have been able to in the most subtle of ways give a few back their voice. Black coffee and newsprint The evening news and black and white movies. The medium is and always will be the message. A comment sparks a memory, which turns into conversation, and soon I have been given the timeline to someones life. What a humbling experience to watch these beautiful souls light up. Soon hours of silence are replaced with those of conversation. There are no bounds to what will be said next.
Communication is to humanity what water is to trees. Without either, none of us can grow.
