There is this English proverb: Old is gold. And there is a Kiswahili proverb: Where there are elders, nothing goes wrong.
I would like to base my reflection today on these two proverbs. In fact, these proverbs and all proverbs treasured by all tribes and nations, are born from the wisdom of our ancestors.
This is a time when we are getting so mixed up that we are forgetting to be inspired by the wisdom of our ancestors and the wisdom of the elders among us. We are wrongly directed by a thinking that “old” is of the past, and “new” is the way to go. Our present world of ever-increasing technology drives us to despise whatever is considered old and whoever is old.
But reality teaches us that, as the proverb goes, Old is gold. Experience shows that our elders cherish all on which their lives are built. They realize that our ancestors lived a certain way and from that life experience have come to us thousands of proverbs, sayings, riddles, stories, rituals and music that are deeply formative and transformative.
The fact of life is that as a person is born and grows up, that person experiences life in a certain way, and by so doing, gets life lessons that often help the same person to improve her or his life in new ways. If a learner makes a chair out of wood, that new carpenter gets some experience that becomes a treasure for making a better chair next time.
Generations before us have acquired knowledge and wisdom that comes to us in writings, stories, music and so on. How can we ignore such treasures of wisdom? We do so for our own peril.
We live in age where the “new” is cherished and adored. The old is tossed away as out of date and out of place. You hear in political circles: we want young people in government. Well, wisdom teaches us that the new and young is not necessarily better and wiser. Neither is old automatically better and wiser.
But the truth stands: the collective wisdom of our ancestors is priceless and invaluable. We invite our own fall if we ignore the life lessons that come to us from our ancestors.
This is a call therefore to cherish the wisdom that we hear from our fathers, mothers, grandparents and other elders. When is the last time that you listened attentively to a story from your grandmother?
