The Thing About The Elderly

I've absolutely no problem with old people. In my culture we are taught to respect them. Why wouldn't you? They lived long enough to see different iterations of life. Though most of us think we are unique, in the bigger picture we share similar issues. Trauma. Loss. Tragedy. Love. Anger. And so forth. However, there are some elderly these days that refuse to embrace their elderly-ness. That's when you bristle at their attitude. There is a 60+ year old co-worker of mine who can't seem to understand things. He does things HIS way. And he messes things up. Only to do those things again. Frustrating to watch. If you get upset, the people around you tend to take their side. Which is unfortunate as they don't see the resistance to change. My supervisor (who is 70+ himself) tends to say things like "he won't change" "he's not going to do what you tell him, so why bother?" This is true. At the same time, I reserve the right to berate his incompetence. My supervisor also tells me that he is attempting to save jobs. He doesn't listen or process well. Because if I am guiding him through the processes of how we do things, this is me attempting to save his job. The higher ups above my supervisor knows. To be fair, he doesn't really care about much. He doesn't want conflict. He's a colossal pussy. And he never wanted to be put in charge. He is perfectly happy being a button pusher. I know he gets the feeling that I think I'm better than him. In a way...yes, I am. Not in better as a human. He is a much better human. In terms of Buddhist live and let live attitude. But he's an idiot when it comes to being curious about life. He is a failed photographer. And...truth be told, for someone who trained hard to be one, his photos are awful. Objectively, sure. But they are bad. His composition skills are lacking. Nothing he takes is all that interesting. I think because his intellect gets in the way of creativity. The intellect tells you to expose well and use "the rules of three" The creative tells you it's all bullshit. What comes within you to be unique is what is much more effective. Try telling that to a 70 year old. Still, people should care and take pride in what they do. I think they stopped a long time ago and just see it as a job.