Janet McNeill

<written for the North Renfrew Times in Oct. 2007>

Older people – “senior” citizens – are occasionally heard to comment somewhat bitterly about the behaviour and attitudes of young people. In particular, they seem to resent younger people’s “lack of respect.” I think what they are likely referring to is what they view as a lack of “good manners,” and also a lack of respect “for our elders.”

As I see it, the tradition of respecting our elders goes back a very long way: all the way back to our days as cave dwellers. In those times, life was a good deal more straightforward. Young people looked up to the adults because it was they who taught them all there was to learn about life: how to hunt, how to gather food, how to behave toward fellow tribe members; in other words, how to stay alive and safe, sheltered and fed (all of which, by the way, also helped to enhance the long-term survival prospects of the tribe itself).

Things are a little different these days, aren’t they? Older folks still seem to expect to be respected – but perhaps we have forgotten that respect is something we must earn.

Do all adults today deserve the respect of “the younger generation”? I’d say there are a great many who do and alas, quite a few who probably don’t.

I would think it’s a stretch for young people to develop respect for the “older generation” if they see the latter as not-very-laudable role models of behaviour and ways of living that will ensure a safe and sane planet for their own age group and for the generations to come.

Julie Johnston, a member of Environmental Education Ontario, promotes the idea of “thinking like an ancestor,” and has taught workshops around this concept. Julie hopes that many more of us will give serious consideration to adjusting our behaviour and our ways of life now, such that those of us alive today will be viewed by future generations not as careless agents of destruction, but as people who changed our ways so our descendants would inherit a habitable planet.

I have long admired the decision-making tradition of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people, who take into account with each decision its consequences for the succeeding seven generations. Many of us today don’t even seem capable of caring about our impacts on those immediately around us, let alone on the people seven generations hence.

An article in the November/December issue of ‘Utne Reader’ (a magazine available at Deep River Library) tells of a new group of elders, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. Article author Nina Utne informs us that, before the arrival of the white man in North America, the influence of women in indigenous culture was considerable. As she states in the article, this included “final authority on most tribal matters, including decisions of war.” I look forward to seeing the documentary “For the Next Seven Generations: The Grandmothers Speak.” For more information about this inspiring group, go towww.grandmotherscouncil.com

One man very well-respected as an elder in the environmental community is Thomas Berry, now in his 90’s. Berry’s career as a theologian, historian and writer has brought him to a broad understanding of the entire range of human history on the planet – and of what he calls “the human project.” His insights are profound, if sometimes deeply challenging.

Berry has written numerous books; three I’ve read that I recommend highly are The Dream of the Earth,The Great Work – Our Way into the Future and Befriending the Earth. In the latter book, Berry says: “Each of us, in our separate ways, is destined to be a significant personality in celebrating the past, grieving the disasters of the present, and giving birth to the future.”

For my money, this elder is one whose words, life and actions are greatly worthy of our admiration and respect. Berry is clearly among the growing circle of those who understand that we human beings are being called to learn to think and behave differently. Perhaps we might all, in the year ahead, muse often on whether we are behaving appropriately – as ancestors to the generations yet to come.