It seems that experience and knowledge are a burden from the moment you turn 55 years old. The population rates have suffered an important decrease during the last decade, even though it seems now that the birth rate is increasing, specially in the big cities. But the truth is that from a demographic point of view, during the next two years we will see the progressive aging of the population, which will be more obvious in this decade and the following one.
Then we can wonder:
Can our experience and knowledge, accumulated in a long work life, not be used in and by the companies and society in general?
Do the youth think that it is only them who know the whole truth?
Could they not use the 'veterans' of many operative, administrative, decision-taking battles, as a senate to listen to their advice and suggestions, guaranteed by their long experience?In my opinion, a great potential is being wasted and, besides, in order to avoid getting stagnated, stopped, obsolete, we ourselves must channel our desire, energy, strength and illusion that we have to develop our spirit, our mind, to increase our knowledge of those subjects that we all surely have not passed yet.
I think that nobody should avoid the responsibility of remembering and transmitting, that all of us can learn from each other; we can and must learn from those who are ten or twenty years older than us, and those who are ten or twenty years younger can learn from us and vice versa.
In this aspect, we should apply the theory of the communicating vessels, in which the levels of the deposits balance and get equal although they are deposits of different capacities. The ability of learning is not the same when we are ten, twenty-five, forty, fifty-five or seventy years old, but the ability of learning and transmitting what we know always remains.
Just a final thought. We must conceive the rest of our lives as a game, as something nice, something worthwhile, thinking that we always have much to give, to transmit and to receive. Therefore we must make true intergenerational relations exist, spread, and we must achieve, really and fully, a society for all ages. All this can only invite us to live our life to the full and with the obligation of trying to be happy, and most important, of achieving this goal.
Treasurer of the Group of Retired Staff and Pensioners
from European Savings Banks
