keep it open

I have yet to stop learning.
I hope you are also continuing to learn.
I am not forgetting important things.
I am instead learning that some of what used to pass as knowledge
was instead fiction.

Granted, that within another twenty years my mind is likely to weaken.
But I will also, judging from experience with my elders, recognize that.
I am not there yet.
Twenty years from now you won’t be either.

I know I see things you cannot see.
You currently see what your children cannot.
That pattern will continue with you for quite some time.
For me a bit less.

But you are trusting the untrustworthy.
I know that seems unlikely.
There are powerful reasons why you trust them
and equally powerful reasons why they are not to be trusted.
Someday you may understand both.

Meanwhile, you distrust me.
My judgments seem contrary to what you think is reasonable.
I understand that too.
I don’t blame you.
The environment that molded you is not of your making.
The current is going the other direction.

I only ask that you keep your head above the water.
That you keep your mind open.
Every once in a while, tread water and observe your surroundings.
Please think about what and why rather than trusting the untrustworthy.

In your busy, hectic life, analyzing motives of public figures is not normal.
I remember that.
It was all I could do to bring home the bacon and try to be DAD.
There is a reason society’s philosophers are “wise old men”.
The young and strong have other assignments.

The multi-generational, nuclear family is gone.
That, too, is not an accident.
Neither
“Respect your elders” nor
“Honor your mother and father”
worked for the ruling elite.

Do not follow the moneyed interests.
Do not follow those who put themselves above you.
Go the other way.

Be absolutely wary of those of exceptional wealth.
They did not get there on the high road.
They trod on the heads and bodies of their victims.
And we are the latter.