The importance of older people

I have been meaning to do this blog for a couple of weeks, but the words escape me. I am going to try and hope that it all does not come out like a huge poop bomb.

When I was a little girl I had a very special person in my life, my grandmother. She left this earth in May. This was a very hard thing for me to grasp. Like everyone that deals with death, the finality is what upsets me the most. I can never call her up and say "Do you remember so and so?" or "How long do I cook this?".

I am very lucky though. I had an 11th grade US History teacher that gave me the assignment to talk to someone that was of different generations. One of the people I chose was her. I must tell you, that was a changing point in how I viewed older people. She shared with me all about her childhood. Not just the "I had to walk up hill, both ways" stories, but the stories of her life. How she grew up and married a Army man. How she has been all over the world, and how she raised her three little youngins. God knows she was not a saint! She was a good grandmother.

It leads me to think that everyone has a story. They might think their life is boring, but it might be stories that others treasure. Especially your family. I love hearing about when my mother was a little girl. I want these memories preserved for my children, to be passed down...so they know where and who they come from. I know I have my grandmothers temper, and she got it from her mother and so on. I have obviously passed this on to my daughter. I also like looking into Ansley eyes and know that she has a huge chunk of my American Indian heritage. These are all things that I might not have known if I did not talk to my grandmother.

I think it is very important to teach children to respect elders, but also learn for them. The week of Thanksgiving Matt went to a local nursing home with student council. I told him to soak up everything they say. He did. He came home and told me that he learned the true meaning of the Candy Cane. He was so very excited to share this with everyone while at the table during Thanksgiving. It made my heart smile that he took something so great away from that visit. You see, we think we are helping them...but they can really help us.

The Candy Cane Story

A candymaker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would remind people of the true meaning of Christmas; so he made the candy cane to incorporate several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the Church, and the firmness of the promises of God.

The candymaker then shaped his cane into the form of a "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to the earth as Savior. It could also represent the staff of the "Good Shepherd" with which He reaches down to to reclaim the fallen lambs who, like sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candymaker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.