I agree with you, I find this confusing and somewhat misdirected.

That conference agenda looks like a list of discussions for the VERY old, people in nursing homes with long-term illnesses. I’m sure they are worthy topics, but then we are talking ABOUT the older generations, not WITH the older generations, because you really cannot fix anyone’s diet or bank account after the age of 80. It’s too late. Those conversations actually belong in the realm of the young, and since the young are too busy being cool, they don’t want to hear about it. They don’t want to wonder how long-term nursing care will be funded, or what happens in the workplace when an older person is quietly let go from a job and replaced by a younger person. These topics are “boring” but they are actually YOUNG topics because you can do something about this when you are young. When you are old, it’s too late.

I completely agree with your point that it is the current CULTURE that is so frustrating and wrong. I’m annoyed as heck when my friends who are way past age 40 tell me they can’t re-enter the workforce or make a career switch because no one wants to hire an old person with a Ph.D. A friend of mine applied for hundreds of jobs of various sorts and was passed over in favor of recent college grads who spent a couple of years in these jobs and then left. Is the wisdom and experience of someone who has been-there-done-that something that we now have to hide?

I swear I’m a better person now than I was at age 22. Why is this so hard for people to understand? Maybe we should start openly laughing at the dumb things that 20-somethings do and say? The only reason that we aren’t is that we have been-there-done-that also…and one thing you learn as you get older is compassion.

And about Madonna…that’s just bizarre. She is rich, smart, and successful. Where will all these young punks be when they are 56? Good luck with trying to live up to that. Envy is really one of the more unattractive vices.