The Old Generation

Tears just can't help running out of my eyes in past few days because of "Grandma's Wisdom", written by Ni Ping. (《姥姥语录》作者倪萍， 我将其翻译为:"Grandma's Wisdom")

In a late afternoon, I happened to find an audio version of Grandma's Wisdom on XimalayaFM. Out of personal liking to Ni Ping, I started to listen to it. I instantly fell in love with it and couldn't stop listening it. As I kept listening, I couldn't stop crying. I was listening and crying until I fell into sleep, and next morning I kept listening and kept crying. Every little story touched me deeply down into my heart. Don't get me wrong, they are not sad stories. They are just ordinary little things that happened in an ordinary old lady's daily life, but you can see wisdom, virtue and strength in old generation, which you can barely see them in today's young generation.

The next day I got on Amazon and bought the paper book. Reading this book reminds me my own grandma. Like author, I got raised up by my grandma too. I still remember that I argued with my grandma about not eating breakfast almost every morning, she kept asking me to eat breakfast but I kept refusing to eat. Because I didn't like the thin porridge, it tasted like nothing but water, I hated it. So I usually ran to school to get away from it. I knew Grandma was too old to catch up to me. Many times I thought Grandma would scold me or beat me by the time I got home from school, but she never did, instead she immediately put some food in front of me with big smile on her face like nothing happened in the morning, she knew I was hungry since I didn't eat my breakfast. I was little and didn't understand why Grandma always made thin porridge for breakfast even she knew I didn't like it, I held resentment against her because of breakfast. Now I realized how stupid I was, she was poor and couldn't offer a better breakfast but thin porridge. Sometimes, Grandma woke me up in the middle of night, put chunks of meat into my mouth, which she got from eating at my uncle's home.Unlike author's grandma, my grandma didn't live long enough to give me a chance to pay her back. She died when I was in middle school. I always think if she were still alive, I would buy her delicious food, take her on a vacation, give her money as much as I can earn.

The old people, like Grandma, Grandpa, are always kind and polite, even to strangers. They have a big heart, selfless, always think about others before themselves. They are generous to others but frugal to themselves. They have a strong will to confront with poverty and hardships.

I found such old people in America too. Old Americans are much nicer and more hospitable than young Americans. Young Americans are self centered and indifferent.They don't care about others and pay no respect to the elder. Old Americans lives a frugal life too, even they are rich. Take one of my friends for example, she is 83 years old, super nice and sweet to others. One day she invited us to have breakfast buffet at a very nice hotel. She ate as much as she could. By the time we were all done with food, got big full belly. I was about to leave, but she went to get a very big piece of steak, cut it into little chunks, then grabbed a plastic bag from her little hangbag, she put those chunks of steak into bag and put the bag back to her little handbag. She did the whole thing in a very calm, natural way that made me feel she was doing all this at her own home. I was stunned. I can't imagine what she did is exactly what my grandma would do. She is actually an rich old lady, always goes on vacations, spends one month in Hawaii during winter every year, but she still lives her life in a frugal way.

That's the old generation, no matter where they are from, they are the same.