Someone shared this video with me about two weeks ago and it wasn’t till now that I am making the time to share this with you. Thank you for sharing this with me and pardon me for taking so long to share this gem with you.. The video was written and directed by Malcolm Green; cinematography by Daniel Trapp and produced by Simon Goodman. It was part of Jewish Care’s Pearls of Wisdom campaign, which aims to highlight the value and importance of older people in today’s ageing society. This video is a wonderful reminder of the wisdom of elderly around us. From a Chinese Proverb, “Having an elderly at home is akin to having a treasure at home.”
Random Wisdoms from the video: (as presented in the video)
Follow the journey of a young boy of a three-generation household, as he sees first hand the importance of respecting, honouring, and loving his parents, through the best and the worst of times. What truly captured my heart is the line, “How one generation loves, the next generation learns.” There couldn’t be more true to that line; I learn respect, unconditional love and acceptance from watching how my parents treat their parents.
My grandmother taught me a valuable lesson in Patience, Unconditional Love and Acceptance recently. She was admitted in the hospital for more than two weeks. For the two weeks, we took turns to take care of her during the day so that the caregiver could take a rest at home and be back in the evening to take care of her through the night.
Initially for the first 3 nights she was very restless and hallucinating; seeing things and people around her and making noises. There was really nothing much we could do, except to try to calm her down in different ways.
Fortunately she got much better and her mind much clearer after the third day; she could recognise us. However, she was still eating very little and getting weaker. We tried buying her some of her favorite food and cooking what she requested but she was still not eating. The doctor was telling us if she continued to refuse to eat, they would have to feed her by inserting a tube through her nostril down the throat and into her stomach. We were all at a lost and didn’t know what to do except to hope that she would start eating.
Then miraculously she started eating more and more. Soon she regained her strength back. My grandmother is a very strong-willed lady who always want to win. Thus the first thing when she got back her strength, she wanted to go home; the hospital couldn’t discharge her as they were monitoring her blood sugar level (which has been high) as well as her hemoglobin (which has been low). We had to try all ways to pacify her to stay in hospital.
The good news is, she was discharged from the hospital yesterday.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” – Nelson Mandela
How true isn’t it? Nelson Mandela certainly was right when he said ‘… love comes naturally to the human heart …’ A child knows no hatred or how to hate and yet he/she instinctively feels the love and care shower by parents. A child generally do not differentiate statue too; a child may be shy and uncomfortable with a stranger initially, but if the stranger treat the child lovingly and kindly, the child will eventually warm up to the stranger.
Most adults on the other hand have the ability, through learned experience, to differentiate people who are genuinely sincere and good from those who are not. This is one of the reasons, and a valid one, why parents find it necessary to protect baby from people who are not genuinely sincere and good.
In the process of growing up, the child will see, hear and pick up hatred we show to others along the way. We too had unconsciously learnt to hate from our parents and people around us; not that they wanted to teach us to hate on purpose, but through their words and actions, we imitated them until at such time that their words and actions become part of ours too. We eventually ‘pass’ these words and actions to our children. This is a vicious cycle that will stop only by consciously teaching our children to love people from the heart.
However, in order for us to be fitting to teach our children to love, we must first learn to love like them. Did I just contradict myself? It makes sense actually. We need to first learn to love people indiscriminately and with an open heart from them. Then we lead by example to love people indiscriminately and with an open heart. A challenging thing to do but so is anything worth fighting for.
Through conscious teaching of ourselves and especially our young ones to love, I believe that one day most of us will be loving people.
How do you think we can work towards teaching people to love?
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