How to Talk to Someone Over 80

Talk to someone over age 80. Do not wait! Do it now.

Here's how to do it. 

1) Find some question or issue or reason to call or talk with the person. It legitimizes the conversation. It makes the person feel as if it is a real conversation, not made up.

2)Ask the person about something of interest to you from the past.
Sometimes you can ask about the present, rarely about the future, but what you really learn from and really want to know is about the past.  The past is the clue or even answer to the present and the future. 

3) Then listen.  Don't try to suggest your own ideas, never try to convince them, don't try to make them modern or learn something new.  You want to benefit from, and enjoy, their experience. So just shut up and listen when they start talking.

4) Understand it's not always productive.  You won't get  a "wow" moment every time. It's hard to predict when the person will tell you something amazing.  But it's pretty well guaranteed there will be a "wow" and an amazing experience or anecdoate or story if you keep talking and keep listening.  Enjoy!  People over 80 have an enormous amount of wisdom, some of it will be lost to history. So start listening soon, like today.

 

 

Comments

[D. P. Lubic]

I've had quite a few wonderful experiences listening to and talking with old-timers, and also youngsters. In fact, both my wife and I get along much better with the very old and the young than we do with people in our own age range (she's 58, I'm 56, and I'm defining the age range as 40 to 65). We have both been like this since our teens.

Sadly, this has also essentially made us misfits in the world for most of our lives. Both of us feel we live in the wrong time--and in my case, I've had others tell me so!