Monday, May 31, 2010

Respect your elders

“It happened in Athens, during a public representation of some play exhibited in honor of the commonwealth, that an old gentle man came too late for a seat suitable to his age and quality. Many of the young gentlemen, who observed the difficulty and confusion he was in, made signs to him that they would accommodate him if he came where they sat. The good man bustled through the crowd accordingly; but when he came to the seats to which he was invited, the jest was to sit close and expose him, as he stood, out of countenance, to the whole audience. The frolic went round all the Athenian benches. But on those occasions there were also particular places assigned for foreigners. When the good man skulked towards the boxes appointed for the Lacedaemonians, that honest people, more virtuous than polite, rose up all to a man, and with the greatest respect received him among them. The Athenians, being suddenly touched with a sense of the Spartan virtue and their own degeneracy, gave a thunder of applause; and the old man cried out, ‘The Athenians understand what is good, but the Lacedaemonians practice it.’”

This made me reflect that often we Christians think the world needs a counselor when in reality they need an example.

Joseph Addison, photo by Ian

2 comments:

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hello Fred:)

Very interesting post.

But I must say that many modern youngsters have no respect for the elders. Many times when very elderly and infirm elderly person enters the bus no one gives him a seat and I find often a young students happily occupying the one seat marked for elders and refuse to getup and give the seat to the old man. I feel very sorry when I see this.

Best wishes Fred:)
Josep

Anonymous said...

Modern day youngsters would rather be in a who could piss the farthest than give up a seat lol