Age and Wisdom Meets Youth and Beauty
A year ago when Bunny came to juxtapose our family, I was a bit surprised by her reaction to Lilac. Lilac is the oldest hound here in our house, and she was a brood mama to two litters of puppies. Normally, when she meets young dogs, she gives them a bit of discipline (one deep, serious bark, and I have no idea what she says in that one bark, but the youngsters always take it gravely) and then goes on her way, ignoring the young dog. She tends to avoid puppies and young dogs, perhaps because she feels she is done with that subgenus of nonsense now.
Of course, as soon as Bunny came here, she made herself completely at home. She made her introductions to Lilac and Hawk and after a enlistment of her new castle, the little princess needed a place to lay down. She looked around at the various dog beds scattered across the floor and fixed to lay right next to Lilac on the big orthopedic dog bed. My husband was shocked. I was shocked. Lilac was stunned. Another dog was laying down next to her?! She didn't growl or curl up a lip, but she did command a departure from that particular bed after a period of polite tolerance.
Lilac has never gotten after Bunny, save for an cursed incident where Bunny didn't see her foot and stepped on it in passing. She hasn't encouraged Bunny to be adjacent to her either, though. Hawk took her under his wing for a little bit, playing with her before he just got too worn out...
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Why is it so fashionable to hate youth and beauty in favour of 'age and wisdom'?
Dec 28, 2006 by _Picnic | Posted in Psychology
The most perceptive people have been so since an early age so it is nonsense to necessarily equate age with wisdom. In fact, age can be a burden to capacity in quite a few people as the leisure of their youth, when they had time to consider the world as they wished, gives way to the compromises and irrational games of the 'real world'. As for youth and beauty, what kind of perverse world could think that looking unusual faced and attractive could be anything but desirable? Isn't it just envy that makes people attack the bonny?
I wrangle with your premise and don't believe there is any evidence to support it. As a society we present the "young and delightful" with enormous portions of our income for appearing on our magazine covers and in our television shows and movies. It may be workable for someone to be young, beautiful and intelligent, but the converse is just as likely to be true. What does youth and beauty undertake except sexual desirability?
Don't confuse intelligence with wisdom. The presence of intelligence may make it more no doubt that one will become wise, but other factors such as the breadth and variety of experience, play perhaps a more dominant role. Certainly the more experiences one has the more likely one is to become wise and thus the association of age with wisdom. The problem with the intelligence of youth is that it doesn't be aware it's own limitations and knowing one's limitations is almost the perfect definition of wisdom.
Patienttraffic | Dec 28, 2006
Well...youth and beauty are evanescent but wisdom is invaluable...(and it does come with age)
Mal | Dec 28, 2006
Is our culture becoming more youth and beauty oriented?
Jan 08, 2007 by rainy_blonde | Posted in Other - Beauty & Style
I once have noticed that we are far more youth and beauty and "thin" oriented than we have ever been in the past. This, in spite of the fact that Americans are older than before (pet boomers are now middle aged) and we are fatter than ever. What will be the consequences for our collective self esteem? Having bones flaws is becoming more and more unaccepted. I think people in our culture are expecting to be able to find partners who are more intact than ever. For example, a 37 year old man I know said he doesn't like his wife's centre! His wife, also 37 bore him 3 children!! What will be the effect? It's interesting that there are more single households than ever before too... is this because our standards are higher than they should be? Comments that I have review here on this question/answer board seem to confirm what I'm saying here. Any thoughts?
Another example: I have a 34 year old spear friend who is single, and he fully expects to marry a model - by his own admission. He's currently pursuing an 18 year old brazilian dancer. I of he'll be single for a long time!
I thoroughly agree. Our society IS indeed becoming more and more beauty oriented. Go into any high school now, and it's all about how you look and how you dress. People find you all by the way you look.
You know what I find really interesting...Muslim women wear the head scarf to be reasonable. They don't show their beauty to every guy on the street and don't want to be used as sex symbols. The scarf tells someone to respect the person for who they are, not how they look. You rate someone for how they act, not how they appear to look. Physical appearance does not determine who you are. I wouldn't want every man on the row to see my body and to look at me in that way. Then they don't treat you respectfully...it's just degrading. The head scarf tells them to appreciation someone for who they are, not how they look. Same goes with modest, long, loose clothing. It's almost impossible to find non-revealing clothing.
Anyway, so that's my property irrelevant of view. I completely agree with you on the way people are viewing one another.
=]
Randomness | Jan 08, 2007
We reside in a society where often youth, wealth, beauty and popularity make people into gods. That I can't stand. The Jets to me are the antithesis of that. and more »
