This idea is important for parents, grandparents or anyone working or living with people substantially younger than they are.

As is obvious to people who have read the Napkin Story I tried to impart all sorts of substantial ideas to my daughters over the years.  But those ideas aren’t like food.  Put in front of them and eaten immediately.  They are more like a seed that is planted.  It needs to germinate and grow at its own pace, depending on the soil, weather and other plants it encounters, not what the parent plant encountered. Just as in evolution there is variation and mutation over the generations so to with ideas and thoughts.  

The key for the older person is to show respect for the thoughts and ideas the younger people have.  Even if they sound similar to your ideas it is essential for the growth of the next generation that you accept that their ideas are their own, new and fresh, for the world they live in.  If you do that you empower them to continue thinking and exploring and you give them the right example for how they should respond to the next generation when they are your age, many years from now.

Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman

“Those who say our thoughts are not our own because they resemble the ancients, may as well say our faces are not our own because they are like our parents’.” Alexander Pope, 1688-1744, British author and wit.  By the way, you think you have good excuses to not produce good work?  Pope contract spinal tuberculosis as a child and had stunted growth as a result.  He also had severe headaches, spasmodic fits and respiratory problems. He eventually had to wear an iron corset to simply sit upright.

Thanks to one of my favorite quote books for that information, Geary’s Guide to the World’s Great Aphorists.

Greetings to yesterday’s visitors from Qatar, Chili, Israel, France, Germany, India, Canada, and the UK!  Hope to see you again soon.