Tomorrow, Sept. 20, is Respect for the Aged Day in Japan. Activities are organized to help the elderly living in the community. (The elderly are generally defined as those 65 and up.) Free lunch deliveries are organized and other basic necessities are distributed. Special events are hosted to honor the elderly, such as school performances. Many communities invite the elderly as their honored guests at special ceremonies.
Yes, this is one day out of the year. But it reflects a fundamental attitude toward aging in general, and it's not unique to Japan. In South Korea, the 60th and 70th birthdays are important enough to warrant large parties and family feasts. The "village elders" are still a thing in large, mostly non-Western parts of the world. The Confucian principle of filial piety has been a driving force in Chinese society for centuries, although it is being challenged by an increasingly mobile society where adult children are flocking to the cities for work.
It's hard not to contrast this kind of attitude toward our aging citizens with the Western infatuation with youth. I'm not talking so much about putting our senior citizens in nursing homes as much as the way we view age in general. Of course this is reflected in the decisions we make about how and where to care for our aging parents; we've all heard the reports of class action suits brought against nursing homes for the treatment they received during the recent hurricane Ida. A shocking number of elderly French citizens died alone in their homes during the historic heat wave of 2003.
But perhaps just as important as how we care for the elderly is the weight we place on their lessons learned from life experience.
So often in the workplace a mature person is passed over in favor of someone younger, more tech-savvy and perhaps more energetic. We obviously don't want to paint with too broad a brush, but by and large, do we have something to learn from our Eastern friends?
As always, your thoughts are welcome. Just leave them below..