If youth knew, if age could

The quote “If youth knew, if age could”, delivers a deeper message that penetrates the relation between the youth and the aged through generations after generations. This quote simply explains that the youth and elderly people need to join hands to utilize the knowledge and power simultaneously for the better result. The youth and the elderly people is often found in an inverse relationship. When one agrees or accepts a concept, the other always finds a loophole. This is often covered up with the term ‘generation gap’. Everyone has come across this term of ‘generation gap’ but hardly any of us have tried to analyse this gap and make a common way out.

This concept need to be analyse and understood both by the ‘Young Generation’ and the ‘older Generation’. When we talk of the generation, it is again our though process which makes us young or old. This is where the quote hits its remark, that the youth should try to visualize the knowledge and message their elders are delivering, and the old people should try to retain their power and strength to compete the worldly affairs in a rocking manner.

We can infer this quote and approach towards the practical implication in two ways:

• Youth think rationally, and elders retain the strength

The youth have a warm blood and the spark to burn immediately. If they could start thinking rationally and have patience enough to listen and understand the views and opinions of others before going ahead and delivering their turn of strike, that would make a complete compilation of the human requirement to win the battle of life. Similarly, the elders need to retain their strength and power in their performance, along with their knowledge and experience, to fight back the world with full vigour.

• Youth and elderly people join hands and act as a combined unit

If every position of the management is recruited with an energetic enlightening youth and an experienced elder person within the field, the delivered result could be definitely better. The older person can reciprocate his experience and knowledge and the young burning blood can implement the same and deliver the best output in totality.

Though both the approach will give the best outcome, still the second way of approach is more practical and acceptable in any life pattern. We can discuss the inference of this quote with respect to the different era precisely.

As per the old Hindu mythology, the human life is divided into childhood, adulthood, married life and last one for the old age being vanaprastha. It was believed that the person gets done with his worldly responsibilities by getting his children settled, and after handling them the charge of the family, they need to move to the forest and concentrate away from the moribund city life.

This era hardly provided time to the elders to guide their successors with their knowledge and experiences. The elder men moving out of the family life and the women being cultivated into the narrow mindedness of the society, the children were the soul in-charge of taking care of the family and outdoor responsibilities without anyone to guide them. Here the youth couldn’t know the experience and they had to live of their own experience. On the other hand, the elders were not allowed to involve in the worldly matters. No point of discussing their strength and physical potential, as even their experience was not of any use to the world.

This was the evolved period from the older concepts of life. The vanaprastha was not an option anymore. This made the interaction between the experienced elders and the youth possible. The quote could get its orientation and a defined shape in this era. People used to have simple living and have grandchildren in their old forties. Though the retirement age didn’t reach, but people used to get rid of the family affairs by handing over the responsibilities to the successors.

This era made the elders guide their children with their experiences and children were curt enough to listen to their elders. Though the respect was forced to them, still they used to abide the words of their elders. This made the experience get implemented, but with lack of full vigour, as the task accomplished by the youth without interest didn’t get the sufficient input of the young potential in the delivered outcome. On the part of the adults, they used to be more of stubborn and could hardly accept any difference of opinion. They used to perform immense physical labour during their lifetime, to the extent that they got tired and wear and tear set-in at an early age. There was hardly any point discussing regarding their physical stamina to combat the youth and have the best deliverable.

The era we are living today is more mechanical with less physical labour. The masses have civilised and the value of literacy and education is well understood. Both men and women participate equally in worldly matters and the marriage age has been increased. The retirement age is not seen any before the sixties. People maintain their physical and mental strength equally even at that age. The age could perform and deliver utilising their life experiences.

For the youth, the young generation today is more learned and have much patience to hold their temper and understand the requirements and utilities. They are more outward and open minded. They give way to fresh thoughts and have a listening ear for the age old experiences. The youth today is not sheepish or doesn’t feel bad in learning from the experiences of old people and gaining knowledge from their failures. With such a mind-set they have a ready spark to glow the world with their brightness. The youth understands the difference between the requirement of flame for lighting the lantern and burning down a project.

The quote fits well in today’s era; as the youth knew what and when to perform; and the old could deliver with their strength and potential.

Precisely speaking, the quote is a befitting one for the present era. We have a wide scope of reshaping the world today to a beautiful age and recreating the place for welcoming the coming generation with a much soothing and comfortable living. The youth knew and the age could, all that is required is the implementation of the quote in a smart and acceptable manner.