The 100th birthday blog of wisdom!
What wisdom has an older person passed onto you? Share the knowledge here.
All week we've been celebrating One Show viewers who are 100 years old in 2009.
Thank you to everyone who has got in touch.
We've added the names of our fabulous centenarians to our One Show 100th birthday page of honour! Click here for our birthday list.
After being around for such a long time, our 100-yr-olds know a thing or two. So we asked them 'What is the most significant thing life has taught you?' And they replied...
Vera Evans: "Be optimistic, never pessimistic, it will always be a better day tomorrow".
Walter Tucker: "If there is one thing I've learnt in my life, it's that the support of your family means everything."
Essie Gauga: "To live and love, to be kind to people and always speak the truth".
Queenie Wells: "To work hard and play hard, enjoy what you do and don't waste time on things that you don't, be nice to people and they will be nice back."
George Milligan: "Health is your wealth, family and friends are the most important things and possessions are of no importance".
Mabel Watson: "Family and friends, passion for life, enjoyment of going to whist drives and socialising"
Arthur Allsopp: "Everyone needs fresh air, sunshine, hard work and a cooked meal everyday to ensure a long healthy life".
Grace Salter: "To make the most of life - whatever its problems - and soldier on come what may. Never give up on anything and if it's worth doing it's worth doing well"
Jim Mount: "Stay loyal and true to those you love and gardening!"
Marion Davies: "Most significant thing learnt is having a loving family."
George Cross: "At a children's service I heard a preacher mention about Joy in life and he mentioned the word JOY. And he said, if you want Joy in life put Jesus first, Others next and Yourself last. And it spells JOY. I have tried to practise this all my life and I still carry it out, and its proved a success."
John 'Sonny' Baker: "A long life is down to hard work, keeping fit, being happy and a strong family. The most important thing in the world is nature, for if we do not look after it then it will not look after us."
Alfred Hardy: "A happy and successful marriage is the keystone of your life. (It stemmed from a young girl dropping her handkerchief by an oak tree and I picked it up)".
Horace 'Harry' Hoames: "The most significant thing that has happened to me in my life is coming home from Burma and seeing my wife. Look after your family and enjoy the time you have with them whilst they are here".
Minnie Whittaker: "To be happy in life and everything else will follow, to be patient and to have a good dinner!"
What wisdom has an older person passed onto you? What is the most significant thing you have learnt in your life?
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~42~RS~)
Comments
I think everything in life should begin with awareness.
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My father taught me to feel sorry for what people had suffered in life.Thirty years later he was shouting about putting things behind him and abusing my uncle into panic attacks. When i was sixteen nothing older people said made any sense. Thirty years later I was still being patronised by the same stuff. I then realised why it made no sense, it was gobbledegook! I made up my mind when I was sixteen never to be like those who patronised me. Okay, I have certain middle-aged traits, but i certainly do not go in for patronising cliches.
I got sick of people telling me they were older and more experienced. Experience brings little wisdom without perception. When I was 47 , a so-called friend, two years older than me, started to give me that rubbish. It is about attention-seeking and dominating others for one's own ends. All the points ofwisdom others make to me are momentary and self-serving devices.
Apparently I should not assume and find out what I am talking about. This was from someone who did not listen before launching into another lecture about nothing. His wife said that most people could switch off to others, in direct contradiction to her making allegations of crazy talk. She tried not to dwell on things, that is why she made mischief and unloaded gender vendor obsessions on to me.
She was too busy to have emotional problems, that is why I had frequent tearful calls when she rowed with ehr husband. The spouse in question apparently made himself fell better by feeling sorry for dead people. I think it was more likely that he did so by bullying and exploiting vulnerable people, not to mention unloading his rubbish whereever he went and preaching, also interfering and taking over.
The best advice was from a CID man. "Be careful whom you choose as friends and don't get too involved with people."
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The best thing my Gran passed on to me was her cooking skills, the best thing anyone ever gave me, now I'm retired with time on my hands I've remembered what she taught me, and I'm cooking every thing from scratch, and making my own bread. I'd like to pass on a little bit of wisdom of my own, not to the youngsters, to to the older generation, remember you were young your self once, and you cannot put an old head on young shoulders.
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Scowl for too long and your face will stick like that. (from my nan Helen Campbell)
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My Gran always asked, are you wearing a clean vest, just in case you have an accident. Well! can you imagine the paramedics shock and horror at the sight of yesterdays vest.
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My great gran lived to be nearly 101. She had all her faculties and not much bad health except for a bit of arthritis. She even died how she wanted to in her sleep. I think she went when she did because her son got cancer and they could not make him better, she wanted to go before him and she did.
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Amazing wisdom seeming to me to centre around loyalty - I wonder what the centenarians and everyone else would think of my idea posted on the blog concerning juries and MP's expenses on 22nd May!?(the last comment on the page) I dare the One show to do a street poll or 'phone-in on this (.....can we govern ourselves via an internet based jury-service type system and do away with MP's?)
GO FOR IT ADRIAN, CHRISTINE, GILES & CO
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My Dad said quite a few things but here are 2.
1) if you think you can't eat all the dinner on your plate eat the most expensive things first.
2) never refuse drinks or money.
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NEVER trust anyone, STAY true to yourself and tell others to go and FALL ON A SPIKE.
I'm not a loner but it's true.
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Never moon a werewolf.
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Give people the choice. Let those who want to be 100 do so. Support those who want to die younger.
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My mum wrote this in my autograph book when I was 10 and I have never forgotten it. "While reaching for the stars do not forget the flowers at your feet"
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Shut up and listen to other people's point of view before leading off at them. The senseless rubbish that did my head in and eventually
caused me to fall out with people was because none of them listened to a word I said, so did not knew what offended me.
So, after twenty-five years, a friend was giving me another crazy lecture on denial routines, not realising I had friends to talk to and the rows were because I could not talk about anything without that rubbish or insults coming at me.
Communication is the key to successful relationships. My father kept rowing with me and made me quite ill. He would ask me a question, give me a snidey put-down before I could answer and start shouting rubbish at me. If it caused trouble he would keep trying to justify the put-down. The last time we spoke he butt in with a instruction order before I could even speak.
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Don't get nasty about people's upsets, especially when you always play on their sympathy. This was another rule my father, sister, or friends never understood, having incessant rows about that. It as if they were trying to bully me to be afraid to speak.
My father used to keep running out of the kitchen and shouting insane rubbish at my uncle, who eventually stopped coming over because he had panic attacks. My father, until the end, sat on his backside grinning, thnking it was a fuss abvout nothing, like he did when I objected to anything. He never seemed to ralise that he was always booing his eyes out to people.
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Don't get nasty about people's upsets, especially when you always play on their sympathy. This was another rule my father, sister, or friends never understood, having incessant rows about that. It as if they were trying to bully me to be afraid to speak.
My father used to keep running out of the kitchen and shouting insane rubbish at my uncle, who eventually stopped coming over because he had panic attacks. My father, until the end, sat on his backside grinning, thnking it was a fuss abvout nothing, like he did when I objected to anything. He never seemed to realise that he was always booing his eyes out to people.
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I do not understand people who will not listen when you tell them something and get lippy instead. Later on they ask what causes trouble. You give up, you have tried to tell them a million times.
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It is said that people always see themselves differently to the way other people see them, but what about highly intelligent people? Aren't sweeping generalisations used to sabotage conversation? It is strange that those who say that keep boasting about themselves.
A Christian who moralised was seen as a bully and rightly so, because he was taking advantage in every way and becoming abusive and slanderous if people objected. He never listened but accused people of crazy talk.
Broaden your outlook and deepen your understanding.
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Experience brings little wisdom without perception.
Cliches are just from popular culture and are as true as they are false.
Let the evidence fit the facts. Middle-aged cliches requires people to select from aready made list of fascinating facts which do not really fit situations, because they cannot absorb things properly.
Most rows are contrived to dodge issues.
The creative memory hears what is not said and takes offence.
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People spout fascinating facts,
To demand unreasonable acts,
From their friends unrealistic expectations,
To restrict and for domination;
Everyone has a favourite one-liner,
To make conversation minor;
Criticise for insecurity,
So a constant friend one will be.
The dominant force imposes his will,
Gets his own way, everyone gets ill;
Then of course comes down the shutters,
This and that friend are the nutters
It is common for people to fall out,
Natural wastage is what it’s all about;
Some folks lie or try to cover,
Maybe crawl around, gang up on another;
Most reach a zenith of out of control,
Turning on others as a whole;
When they do they take the piss:
“You won’t have friends acting like this.”
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