First, my current quandary. Second, some questions in the hope you can assist me to work through this.
1.) I earnestly want to avoid the early onset of fuddy duddyism. On the other hand, there are some old fashioned values & traditions I do not want to jettison. These include:
* Having dinner & other conversations vs. dueling cell phones and incessant texting.
* Keeping hand-written thank you notes alive. Even an e-mail thank you is (arguably) better than no acknowledgment of a gift or other courtesy.
* Treating dogs as animals.
2.) How do you maintain a reasonable balance between some modern norms and values or traditions that strike others as quaint or fuddy duddyish? What is a polite way to deflect a discussion of a dog's bowel movements? How did the word genius become so devalued that it is used without irony to describe Kanye West?
Your able assistance is sincerely welcomed.
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
Pink/green Mohawk, body piercings, full body tattoos: antidote to Fuddy Duddyism.
ReplyDeleteEvery generation falls into it's own fuddy-duddyisms. The biggest contributor is aging, but also, lack of historical perspective (and patience) of younger people. Their world is faster paced, because their biology is faster paced. I think the way to keep handwritten thank you notes in use is, use them. Others likely won't follow your example, but they will (without acknowledging) appreciate them, which is the main thing.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with you about dogs. They are in many ways equal and superior to people, and it's okay to treat them that way. Discussion of any bowel topic should be curtailed, IMO. As for Kanye, genius has become one of those trendy, overused words, like amazing. Or, maybe it's one of those opposite things, as when someone says "literally" when they mean "figuratively". Finally, cellphones, I'm afraid that ship has sailed, so we'll have to get over it.
Hey Jim; Interesting perspective re "younger" people and how the speed of their world connects to their biology. And though you're right that the cellphone ship has "sailed", I don't think that means giving a screen more attention than a dinner partner is polite,do you? On the dogs issue (bowel movements notwithstanding), we can agree to disagree. Thanks for reading.
DeleteNo, it's not. Phone etiquette has not kept pace with technology. And I see more and more older people who are guilty of that. It must erode relationships.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me, "Fuddy Duddyism" is another way to say that you are comfortable enough in your own skin to not concern yourself with what others think. You've developed the ability to see "progress" for what it is, a movement that is not necessarily forward, and the judgement to decide where you, as an individual, will draw the line in allowing such "progress" to define you. I call that Wisdom. d.
ReplyDeleted; I'm growing dependent on your "wise" comments. Here I especially like the "progress" notion re movement that is "...not necessarily forward..."; very elegantly put. Thanks for continuing to read.
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