Perceptions

My Pen Mates,

I have a 12 year old van (bought when my first born arrived). With over two hundred twenty thousand miles in the odometer (yes, we are road warriors and we try to get away at every opportunity), I have come to expect some degree of wear and tear on its various systems. Minor stuff like bulb changes, gaskets here and there, window trimmings, pads, and battery replacements I can take care of. Oil and radiator fluid changes, tires, spark plugs, distributor, engine mounts, timing belts, and other major stuff have been maintained over all these years; so I've been a pretty conscientious owner of an admittedly reliable van. Still, when the retractable antenna gave in, I did not bother to replace it. Part of it is because I still got good reception even with it partially recessed. When the air conditioning motor burned out, I decided that this was going to be my winter car and use the other cars when I needed cool air. One day, the steering wheel started making weird noises whenever it's turned past a certain point. Fearing the worst, I put it in the back of my mind, trying to condition myself to the reality of the vehicle's age and that at some point, the cost of maintenance will exceed its utility and it will have to go. The problem got worse and worse; the kids didn't want to ride in it anymore, either because it made embarrassing noises or because they were fearful of a road breakdown.

Finally, it's come to a point when backing out of the driveway can wake up the neighborhood. Thinking that some bearing in the steering column gave out or some belt broke and hindered turning, I lifted the hood and feared the worst. Examining the column, my untrained eye saw no overt manifestation of the cause. As I was ready to close the hood, it occurred to me to refill all the liquids for the wiper, brake fluid, and every other vessel I could see under the hood. It gave me relief to know that I could actually use some of the liquids in cans and bottles sitting on a shelf in the garage, accumulated over the years.

Deciding to drive to the repair shop to finally get an estimate for a repair, it took no time for me to realize that the noise was gone! There was no sign of it however I turned the wheel, even as I tried to do maneuvers to try to make it reappear. That's when I realized that the car hasn't reached obsolescence; that all it needed was some power steering fluid to lubricate the mechanism. And there I was giving up on a van which I considered too used and worn.

That was eight thousand miles ago, and while the antenna is still recessed, and the air condenser is still shut, the van has been a very reliable third vehicle for my family.

It's a long preface for an article, but what I learned from this experience is that I sometimes hold perceptions of things, ideas, events, even people that's based on misplaced assumptions. In this case, I associated the problem with the car's age, that it's served its time and that it's longevity was serving notice of its eventual demise. Relating that to old people, the natural assumption is that they are slow, weak, forgetful, and yes unproductive because of age. But if we took a closer look and checked the fluids (okay that's a poor metaphor, but you know what I mean), how much wisdom can we draw from them, how much more they have left to contribute to society? Those who have children being cared for by elderly parents can attest to this; but beyond that, this age group show a lot of reliability when it comes to discipline, networking, social concerns (like elections), and as consumers in a capitalistic society.

The bigger that age gap, the worse the perceptions become. The younger generation has an even lower expectation of the elderly than their parents hold, and this is a sad assumption because an intelligent society needs to rely most on human resource before technology. After all, everything that the current generation has, are the elderly's legacy. Humans build on what came before; so does it not follow logic that before we solve a problem on our own, to consult the thought that generated it to begin with? If we set aside that bias we harbor and examine the issue at face value, more often than not, the solution sits there and the fix does not come from thin air but from a place where we have already been.

Mon