The difficulty in understanding between young people and adults lies not only in their vocabulary or linguistic turns, but is magnified by their different views on life, predominant values, tastes, or life projects.
Young people tend towards immediacy, quick gratification, and constant novelty. Adults rely much more on reflection, experiential learning, and frustration tolerance.
Saint Augustine said in his work The Teacher that “whoever is born for the truth desires to learn from those who know; and whoever already knows must patiently teach those who strive to learn” (2). Intergenerational dialogue depends on this willingness to teach and learn. But the figures of the adult and the elderly are becoming blurred, and a term has even been coined to describe this: “ageism.”
In reality, every life is an open book, and every experience a lesson that deserves to be read carefully, as Saint Augustine reminds us in his Confessions (X, 36). To ignore this wealth is to foolishly miss out on a treasure of wisdom due to unwise prejudice.
In most cultures, elders have been or are the center of the family, advisors and guides to others. This is a much more human and communal vision, and this wisdom is not lost, but rather valued and shared.
Finding an easy, well-paying job with little effort, or constantly living amidst novelty, are pure pipe dreams. A person always loses when they abandon values like perseverance, effort, commitment, patience, or listening to those who have faced similar challenges.
St. Augustine, in his book True Religion, taught that patience is the companion of wisdom, and that he who listens learns more than he who speaks (13). In their encounters with adults, young people discover that what truly matters does not come from the immediate, but from what is lasting and profound.
Young people and adults are meant to complement each other. The energy and creativity of youth find their best expression when supported by the experience, memory, and wisdom of adults.
Saint Augustine said: “Love with the intention of building up, and thus everything you do will be beneficial” ( Enchiridion 3). Adults have this capacity to love and teach constructively, and at the same time, dialogue and receiving attention heal and bring them joy.
Any lack of dialogue and mutual recognition between people, between generations, is not helpful, but rather complicates matters. We need each other to understand the value of what endures, to keep hope and dynamism alive.
Saint Augustine concludes: “There is no true friendship or union without love and without mutual recognition of our abilities and limitations” (On Friendship, 1). In this way, we will build societies where your worth is not based on what you produce, but on who you are and what you transmit.
