Dorothy’s Place: Understanding the Generations

By Dorothy Denne

In one of her books, Judith Viorst wrote of the importance of keeping both the elderly and the young in our lives, in order to maintain an understanding and open dialogue between generations.

She suggested the young might gain a better understanding of what the old cope with by putting rubber gloves on their hands, smearing Vaseline on their glasses, putting cotton in their ears, and marbles in their shoes. When I read that, I was on the outer edge of that younger generation.

Time passed quickly and one day I realized I could remove the marbles from my shoes. My feet had developed their own. Thick soft soles on my newly-purchased, old-lady-like shoes helped me to cope with my “marble-y” feet.

Next to go was the Vaseline – I replaced it with bifocals, then trifocals. I let the optometrist convince me that no visible lines were necessary, blended progressives were the way to go. Well, his definition of progressive differs from mine. I see it simply as meaning that when I put them on I can’t clearly see a damn thing at any distance. I’m back to bifocals, where I see the close and the far – and guess at the in-between.

Now that my body has its own marbles and Vaseline, I’ve discovered it no longer needs the cotton either, at least not in one ear. I stuck my pinkie finger in my left ear to give it a good scratch. The world went very quiet. Took my finger out and there was sound. Disturbing, but as long as I keep my finger out of my left ear, it picks up most of what the right one misses.

The fingers? They are totally confused regarding what to hold onto and what to drop.

I do believe my body is completely out of the younger generation. I do hope they understand.

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