Today I fixed a vacuum cleaner. This is not necessarily unusual…I fix a lot of stuff…and…vacuums often break, especially when they are tasked with sucking up some of the things that end up on the floor around here….and no, I am not a vacuum cleaner repairman, nor do I play one on TV….although I suppose for the right arrangement I could be. What is unusual about this instance, however, is that this vacuum belongs to my youngest, who just had a birthday. When asked what she wanted for her birthday, the answer was to ask if I could fix her vacuum. All “grown up.” A “real” adult now. Excited to have a working vacuum cleaner. Initially I was not sure how to take that. But aside of making one feel old it did bring up some other ideas that have been brewing (gratuitous coffee reference) for quite some time and which I always tried to live by as much as possible.
I used to be somewhat bothered that it appears I caught the “tail end” of some very cool things in life, only getting to experience them for a comparatively short time before they were no longer a part of the world. A real hardware store (not a “home improvement center”) a neighborhood deli within a short walk that had all sorts of meat and cheeses hanging up and all kinds of food ….a shoe repair shop, the soda fountain, or the tube tester at the drug store…etc. Cars and other goods whose appearance shows that more attention went into design than into what it would cost in terms of dollars and cents, and…
Most of all– getting to do and experience things hands-on, complete with all their potential sparks, smoke, noises, and smells (and yes, sometimes even the occasional minor cuts, burns, or shocks) that today could get you in trouble or get your parents in trouble for letting you do them. Some of these experiments could and did put items onto the floor that play hell on vacuum cleaners, by the way. But these things, not being confined to their black box of data in and data out or a video on a screen made them interesting and can draw people in. No wonder most of my career choices involved combinations of art and science.
Now, however, I’m not so bothered. I have come to accept my placement (or misplacement) in time…..I even consider myself fortunate at times. I’m in a position where I know many who are older–some very much so, and also know many who are younger. Being a bridge for unusual and somewhat rare or dying knowledge and skills has its rewards, even if there are little to no prospects of making a living at it in the traditional sense of “work” as viewed by our society (OK, that last part is still frustrating to me…very much so….knowing this stuff and being both willing and able to convey it has value, dammit! …and maybe the very attentive reader will detect a sales pitch for a job?)
Such is an obvious benefit that teachers the world over can relate to. But there is another that seems overlooked all too often. Bridges can carry traffic both ways. ….and teaching or mentoring in some way can and should work both directions as well. One need only be open minded and attentive and not dismissive of the questions or ideas raised simply because someone is far younger. Those cool things of the past that I am always happy to convey knowledge of can and should go beyond what they are in and of themselves because they help serve the purpose of perhaps leading someone to later to think of the next cool ideas. And when some of those ideas come back the other direction, we should not reject them out of hand.
Wisdom can come in many packages. It can even appear in the form of your youngest kid wanting the old vacuum repaired rather than simply buying a new one.