As dawn lightens Ho Chi Minh City, Le Van Tam Park across the street from the Vietnamese hotel where we stay is teeming with people. By sunrise there are people walking around the inner perimeter of the park with others exercising individually or in groups in various places, badminton games in progress, hacky sack games going on, and a few people socializing on a park bench. Not only are men and women engaged in playing badminton, some are just batting the birdie back and forth. It may be a couple, two women or an older woman with a granddaughter.

In many places I observed granddaughters and grandsons taking care of their grandmothers and grandfathers. During a bus trip to the highlands, a granddaughter helped her grandmother on and off the bus. A grandmother may be helped by a granddaughter with shopping or other tasks. It was encouraging to me to see elderly people respected and lovingly cared for.

In contrast, here in America it seems that granddaughters are plugged in to the latest electronic gadget shuffling through the songs on an IPod while we shuffle older citizens off to retirement or nursing homes. Here “youth” is revered with celebrities being held up as role models before they can fully establish their own values. Some who are getting older are searching for the elusive fountain of youth through Botox injections. Many older people, that is ages 60 or 65 and above, are marginalized, ignored in the background of current events. American Idol is more important to young adults than the evening news. Hollywood and New York are more important to young people than Darfur or Afghanistan. (Where are those places anyway?) I realize I am writing from a grandmother’s point of view.

When many are perplexed by the recession and worried about how to make ends meet while not cutting back on anything, we can learn from the older generation many of whom lived through the Depression of the 1930s or the after-effects of it. An astute king once said, “Wisdom gives life to them that have it … wisdom strengthens the wise.” Much wisdom resides in the heart of our older population who have learned through experience how to handle life and its problems. Those senior citizens who “saved for a rainy day” may be more able to withstand the current fiscal crisis than those who sought to satisfy every desire with what money can buy. Many older people would gladly share insight and stories with younger ones if they are approached with genuine interest, not condescension. A grandparent is old on the outside but young on the inside. ~Author Unknown

In the airport, we met a 68-year-old man who commutes from Vietnam to the United States every month to visit with his 105-year-old mother. How many of us would pick up the phone and call an elderly mother or go across town each week or travel several hundred miles each month to check on our mother? Before my mother passed away, we used to take one day twice a month and sometimes more to drive 3 hours to another state to visit my mother for 3 or 4 hours, then make the 3-hour drive home. It was tiring, it burned gas, but it was worth it to check on her and take her to lunch so she could get out for a brief excursion.

Kids, when you are bored, pick up the phone and call your grandmother or grandfather. Tell them of your activities and ask of their welfare. If you drive, take them for an ice cream cone. Take a small gift such a hand lotion or something you have made such as banana bread or muffins or a picture you have drawn or a poem written. You will receive encouragement in your life and bring joy to someone else. Let’s tap this source of wisdom and perception. You may be surprised at what you learn.

What is it about grandparents that is so lovely? I’d like to say that grandparents are God’s gifts to children. And if they can but see, hear and feel what these people have to give, they can mature at a fast rate. ~Bill Cosby