Generations

I watched this TED Talk on longevity a long time ago and living in Khao Na Nai got me thinking about it again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-jk9ni4XWk 

(By the way, TED Talks are the most worthwhile thing you can do on the internet. So if you don't know, now you know.)

One thing that will strike you if you ever get the chance to travel to Khao Na Nai (which is completely possible if you so desire, check out khaonanaivolunteer.blogspot.com for more information), you will notice the abundance of older people that are incorporated into the community.

Beware of opinionated rant. One of the most important criteria for longevity is a person's role in society, their feelings of self worth and their life's direction, meaning or ikigai. But, what respect do we really pay to our elders in North America? I know I painting broad strokes, but I can think of very many instances where we do. After all we are a generation of huge technological and social development. It is easy to think of your elders as inferior when they can't figure out how to turn on a computer or harbor backward and often racist sentiments that were ingrained in them during their youth. In a throw away culture where a ten year old cell phone is laughable how can we find a place for the previous models that lead to your existence? Why can't we find value in what we consider antiquated and old fashioned? When will our retirement homes stop baring resemblance to scrap yards of old computer chips in China? It makes perfect sense, in order to live a long life you need a reason to do so, you need direction, meaning, ikigai and you need to feel valued. Right now we sacrifice meaning and value in favor of the presevation of health. Our elderly are removed from their communities and families where they valued (or maybe not) and placed in retirement homes or 'rehabilitation facilities' where their likely hood of having meaningful experiences is drastically reduced. The reason to live is removed while physicians work their hardest to prevent them dying. It's a cruel hypocrisy when everything around you seems to be priming you to die, but preventing you from doing so.  Tremendous care and resources are dedicated to perserving life, but a life filled with what? Life isn't about trying to stay alive as long as possible, but about enjoying and valuing the experiences that we have in the time avaiable. So why sacrafice experience for time when it's the reason we want more time in the first place? Who knows. Rant over.

In this respect we can learn a lot from the way the elderly are treated in Thailand. As you get older you command more respect, unlike in North America where, as Dan puts it our "social equity peaks at around 24" . Here in Khao Na Nai, just as in the 'blue zone' there is very little sense of retirement, only a sense of slowing down and settling into old age. It is not uncommon for them to play an integral role in the raising of children, cooking and doing chores around the house. As Dan illustrates, not only is this good for the grandparents but also the children. People over 70 fly around on motorcycles and go to the market, they make speeches at community gatherings and . They are constantly active because there are no conveniences. Value is synonymous with age here and families would never dream of sending their father, grandfather or great grandfather to a home. It is very seldom that you see any old person even living alone, they often live the same house where they raised their children and watch and assist as their children do the same. In fact, when I was discussing it with a teacher at the school she didn't understand the idea of a retirement home. When I finished explaining, she said "Oh, like in Japan". I wasn't sure what she meant so I asked her to clarify. She said "In ancient Japan when a person reached 60 their son or daughter would take them out into the woods and leave them there to die". I thought about this for a second, laughed and replied that it wasn't so different. The treatment of elderly people here in Khao Na Nai is very closely aligned with the recommendations of the 'blue zone' study. For this reason, people live very long lives here despite the fact that they have very little health care available to them. I wanted to capture the closeness between generations that I saw here and result were these three images. Although the third isn't as affecting hopefully the caption helps do it justice.

 

 

Pee Mun and her sister in law shucking mak next to the front porch. She comes over almost everyday and will sit there for hours working the chopping block and the machete. After a couple hours she will stand up and say her back hurts and eat lunch with us. Although I barely understand her I can tell she is one spirited lady because her and Pee Mun are always laughing as they work. 

Another one of Pee Kai friends or relatives, there are so many always coming round the house that I can't keep track. Anyways, on this occasion he was taking his grandson for a trip around the neighborhood sporting his awesome fedora. The little guy starting clapping right as I took this picture which made for a pretty magical moment between two not so distant generations.

 

Pee Juh's dad still lives in the house that he raised his children in. His son (Pee Juh's brother) and his family now live their with him. He is 79 and needs to breath pure oxygen every once and a while, but that doesn't stop him from moving around the house, chatting with guests (such as myself) and giving advice to the kids.

By the way, 'Pee' is a title that is given in Thailand to anyone who is older than you, be it 20 years, 1 year or even one month. Its connotation is one of belonging and respect. It translates to something like older brother or sister. Everyone is family.