Quick Blog 6

 My social sphere is comprised of people of all different ages. My young cousins are as young as 2 and my grandparents are 92! My family is very large and we get together very often. There is a range of young cousins, older cousins in their twenties, my parents and aunts and uncles in their 40's-60's and my grandparents. We all get along very well. Of course the age I most often with are people in their twenties because all of my friends are this age. I sometimes wish that I spent more time with elderly people. Some of my friends work in a retirement home and the few times I have gone to their work I felt badly for the elderly people. Most seemed bored and lonely. One woman caught me at the door of the elderly home and talked my ear off for a good half hour. I was happy to listen as she clearly did not have many people to talk to. I wish I could take more time out to simply talk to the elderly in homes such as these.
    I think that our society is segregated on the basis of age because many of the activitie we do and places we go are based on age. You dont see elderly people in night clubs and you rarely see younger generations at Friday night bingo.Young and middle aged adults are privileged because they are able to do more than older generations. They are not restricted by sickness, or weak limbs, or bad memory. There are many more things that they are capable of doing.In a way this is also a privilege of ableism.
   We can promote more integration of ages by having required programs in High Schools and Colleges. This way young youths can have a chance to realize it is nice and not as bad as they may think to talk to the elderly. They also may be able to learn from the older generations wisdom. This wisdom and realizing that older people still have a life worth living may make the younger generations respect them more and realize they are still young at heart.